Federal Judge Bans Nitrogen Gas Executions in Alabama
Tuscaloosa native, U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks has permanently barred the State of Alabama from using nitrogen gas in its executions. The 1998 graduate of The University of Alabama School of Law ruled the method violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Mark's ruling permanently enjoins Alabama from using the gas to execute Jeffery Lee who was scheduled to die at Atmore Prison Thursday.
Feelings of suffocation and choking to death on one’s own vomit, as well as brain damage, a stroke, or a persistent vegetative state instead of death are listed by the Equal Justice Initiative as problems with using the gas.
Lee was given the death penalty despite the fact the jury at his trial voted for life. The judge overturned the jury’s vote under a since-abolished procedure called judicial override, where a judge could override a jury’s sentencing recommendation. Alabama repealed the practice in 2017 for all future cases.
Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a press release calling for Lee's execution. “On December 12, 1998, Jeffery Lee walked into Jimmy’s Pawn Shop in Orrville, Alabama, and murdered Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson. He drank liquor and smoked a marijuana cigarette laced with cocaine before arming himself with a sawed-off shotgun and opening fire, killing both victims and wounding a third. He left the murder weapon on the counter and fled to Georgia, where he was apprehended the following morning.
"There is absolutely no question as to his guilt. Lee confessed. The surviving victim identified him. Surveillance footage captured the entire attack. Multiple courts have called the evidence against him ‘overwhelming."
Marshall says the state will appeal the ruling. That appeal will most likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In her 26-page ruling, Marks noted that Alabama has two other execution methods available lethal injection and the electric chair. She said Lee is “not entitled to an injunction barring the State from executing him using one of those methods.”
The state began to utilize the method known as nitrogen hypoxia in 2024 primarily due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs and a problematic history of lethal injection execution attempts.
Marks is a 2017 appointee of President Trump.
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