Man convicted of killing two people in Dallas County scheduled for execution
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WAKA) – A man convicted of capital murder in the deaths of two people in Dallas County in 1998 has had his execution date set.
Jeffery Lee is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection Thursday, September 17, at Holman Prison in Atmore. Gov. Kay Ivey has set the execution window to run from 12:00AM Thursday until 6:00AM Friday.
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 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.
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.
Lee was also sentenced to life in prison for the attempted murder of Helen King in Dallas County.
He had been scheduled for execution in June by nitrogen hypoxia, until the U.S. Supreme Court blocked that method. A federal judge had ruled that Alabama’s nitrogen protocol was unconstitutional, saying it represented cruel and unusual punishment. The state had unsuccessfully appealed that decision.
That U.S. Supreme Court ruling could help determine the future of the execution method of nitrogen hypoxia, which Alabama began using in 2024.
(Copyright 2026 The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
