Alabama Prepares to Execute Jeffery Lee by Lethal Injection Following Nitrogen Gas Block

Alabama is scheduled to execute Jeffery Lee on Thursday night via lethal injection, just three months after a judge's ruling blocked the state's initial plan to put him to death using nitrogen gas. According to reporting by Kim Chandler of ABC News, the 49-year-old inmate is set to receive the chemical injection beginning at 6 p.m. at south Alabama's William C. Holman Correctional Facility. Lee's execution stems from the killings of two people during a 1998 robbery at a pawn shop in rural Dallas County.

The state had initially scheduled Lee's execution for June 11 using nitrogen gas. However, after a judge halted that plan, the Alabama attorney general’s office quickly filed paperwork to secure a new execution date utilizing chemical injection instead. In response, Lee and his supporters launched a final effort to spare his life, highlighting that the original jury in his case recommended life imprisonment, a decision that the trial judge ultimately overrode. Defense attorneys also contended in court that the state should be legally barred from switching execution methods.

The underlying crimes occurred on Dec. 12, 1998, at Jimmy’s Pawn Shop in Orrville, a small community west of Selma. Store owner Jimmy Ellis and employee Elaine Thompson were shot and killed during the robbery, while another employee survived by pretending to be dead. The surviving witness testified that Lee initially entered the establishment to ask about wedding rings, claiming he would return after getting money from his grandmother. Lee came back shortly afterward wielding a sawed-off shotgun, according to the testimony. After shooting Ellis, Thompson, and the third worker, the gunman fled, prompting the surviving employee to drop to the floor and call 911.

Victim Jimmy Ellis was also known as a singer with a voice resembling Elvis Presley's, achieving a national following for a time as an Elvis impersonator under the masked persona "Orion." He was the subject of a documentary released in 2015. Lee was subsequently convicted of capital murder and attempted murder in the year 2000.

Lee's case involves the controversial issue of judicial override in Alabama. He is one of approximately two dozen individuals currently on the state's death row who received death sentences despite jury recommendations for life imprisonment. The jury that convicted Lee voted 7-5 in favor of a sentence of life without parole, but the trial judge exercised the power to override that recommendation and impose the death penalty. Although Alabama abolished judicial override in 2017 to prevent judges from altering jury sentencing decisions in capital cases, the legislation was not retroactive, leaving Lee and others without a remedy under the updated law.

Ahead of Thursday's scheduled procedure, supporters of Lee's clemency bid organized a rally outside the Alabama Capitol on Tuesday under the banner, "HONOR THE JURY." Meanwhile, Lee’s legal team petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution to evaluate whether the state is legally permitted to alter its execution method.

Court filings detail a legal history regarding Lee's execution protocol. In 2016, Lee filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s lethal injection procedures. When the state subsequently authorized nitrogen gas as an execution method, Lee selected it as his preferred alternative and agreed to dismiss his lethal injection lawsuit in 2018. That agreement included a stipulation that if an execution were carried out, the state would use nitrogen hypoxia. Lee's lawyers argued that the state remains bound by this agreement, suggesting state officials could either revise the nitrogen protocol to meet constitutional standards or utilize a firing squad instead.

"The petition asks this Court to determine whether the State may execute Mr. Lee by lethal injection notwithstanding its prior representation that it would execute him by nitrogen hypoxia," an attorney for Lee wrote in a filing to the high court, as reported by ABC News.

Conversely, the Alabama attorney general’s office urged the Supreme Court to allow the execution to move forward, asserting that nothing legally prevents the switch to lethal injection. Lawyers for the attorney general’s office wrote in a filing that an unpunished murder constitutes an ongoing harm to the rule of law, adding that nearly 28 years is decades too long.

Nationwide statistics indicate that 26 inmates have been executed across the United States so far this year, including a Texas man put to death by lethal injection for a triple murder at his neighbor’s home. In a separate case, a judge in Georgia blocked execution plans for a man convicted of killing two real estate agents.

Lethal injection has historically served as the preferred U.S. execution method, but difficulties in procuring and administering the required drugs prompted states like Alabama to explore alternatives. While lethal injection remains Alabama's primary method, the state began utilizing nitrogen gas in 2024 for certain executions. Nitrogen hypoxia involves replacing breathable air with gas delivered via a respirator mask to cause death through oxygen deprivation, and has since been used in seven Alabama executions and one in Louisiana.