Execution date set for man convicted of killing two people in Dallas County robbery
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has set an execution date for the man convicted of killing two people during a robbery at a pawn shop in Dallas County in 1998.
Gov. Kay Ivey has set a June 11 execution date for 49-year-old Jeffery James Lee. Lee was convicted of two counts of capital murder in the deaths of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson while robbing a pawn shop near Orrville.
The killings happened on December 12, 1998. Prosecutors said Lee entered Jimmy’s Pawnshop with a sawed-off shotgun and shot Ellis, the owner of the store, and Thompson, a store employee.
Lee has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the humaneness of the nitrogen execution method. A federal judge has scheduled an April 27 bench trial.
The lawsuit claims the execution method violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Lee’s lawyers had urged the Alabama Supreme Court to hold off on authorizing an execution date until after the challenge to the nitrogen method is decided.
Alabama began using nitrogen gas in 2024 to carry out some executions. The method uses a gas mask strapped over the person’s face to replace breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing the person to die from lack of oxygen. Nationally, the method has now been used in eight executions: seven times in Alabama and once in Louisiana. It is an alternative to the traditional lethal injection execution method.
A jury voted 7-5 that Lee should receive a sentence of life imprisonment. However, a judge overrode that recommendation and sentenced Lee to death. In 2017, Alabama ended the practice of judicial override. The state no longer allows a judge to disregard a jury’s sentencing decision in death penalty cases, but that decision doesn’t apply to cases that were already decided.
(Copyright 2026 The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
