U.S. Supreme Court blocks Alabama execution; Gov. Kay Ivey responds
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WAKA) – The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked Alabama’s use of nitrogen hypoxia to execute a death row inmate who was convicted of killing two people in Dallas County.
The execution was scheduled to happen today.
The Office of Gov. Kay Ivey released this statement:
“This evening the U.S. Supreme Court denied the state of Alabama the ability to execute death row inmate Jeffery Lee by nitrogen hypoxia, the protocol he initially selected in 2018. The Court did not overturn Lee’s death sentence, thus allowing the state to reschedule his execution on a future date.
Gov. Kay Ivey said:
“Jeffery Lee was convicted and sentenced to death for the December 1998 murder-robbery of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson in Dallas County. While I am disappointed the Supreme Court did not allow the state to proceed with Lee’s chosen method of execution, I remain committed to ensuring that justice is ultimately served for his victims.”
A federal judge on Tuesday, June 9, ruled that Alabama’s nitrogen protocol is unconstitutional, saying it represented cruel and unusual punishment, and blocked the state from using it to execute 49-year-old Jeffery Lee. The state appealed that decision.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling could also help determine the future of the execution method of nitrogen hypoxia, which Alabama began using in 2024.
The execution method involves strapping a respirator to the person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from a lack of oxygen. Nitrogen has been used in eight executions in the United States — seven times in Alabama and once in Louisiana.
Lee was scheduled to be the ninth person put the death by nitrogen.
The U.S. Supreme Court had never ruled that a specific execution method violates the Constitution.
Lee’s supporters have urged Gov. Ivey to commute his sentence to life imprisonment, which is the sentence that jurors at his trial had recommended.
A jury convicted Lee of two counts of capital murder for killing Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson while robbing a pawn shop in the Dallas County town of Orrville on Dec. 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.
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. Alabama in 2017 ended the practice of judicial override and no longer allows a judge to disregard a jury’s sentencing decision in death penalty cases. The state law abolishing judicial override was not retroactive.
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