The U.S. Supreme Court refused Thursday night to let Alabama execute death row inmate Jeffery Lee by nitrogen gas, halting what would have been the state's first execution of 2026 and handing Republican Governor Kay Ivey a sharp setback in her push to carry out the sentence.
Lee, 49, had been scheduled to die at 6 p.m. local time. Instead, the justices denied Alabama's emergency request to proceed, and offered no written explanation for the decision, Newsweek reported.
Three conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, indicated they would have granted Alabama's request and allowed the execution to go forward. That means at least six justices declined to intervene on the state's behalf, a lopsided margin that makes the outcome harder for Alabama to dismiss as a narrow procedural loss.
Ivey's office wasted little time responding. In a statement, her office said:
"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 governor added that she remained focused on the people Lee harmed:
"While I am disappointed the Supreme Court did not allow the state to proceed... I remain committed to ensuring that justice is ultimately served for his victims."
Those victims deserve more than a footnote. Court records show that in December 1998, Lee walked into a pawnshop in Orrville, Alabama, armed with a shotgun. He shot and killed the shop's owner, Jimmy Ellis, and an employee, Elaine Thompson. A third employee, Helen King, survived the attack. Lee was convicted of capital murder in Dallas County and has sat on death row for more than two decades.
For the families of Ellis and Thompson, Thursday's ruling means more waiting, with no clear timeline for when, or how, Alabama might try again.
The Supreme Court's refusal capped a rapid series of lower-court decisions earlier in the week. A federal district judge initially upheld Alabama's nitrogen hypoxia protocol as constitutional, concluding it did not inflict pain beyond what existing law permits.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals then overturned that conclusion. The appeals court ruled that Alabama's protocol posed a "substantial risk of serious harm" and could expose inmates to severe suffering beyond the pain of death, a potential violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The 11th Circuit sent the case back for further review.
Alabama responded by filing an emergency request with the Supreme Court, asking the justices to clear the way for Lee's execution to proceed on schedule. The justices said no.
The ruling did not overturn Lee's death sentence. Alabama remains free to attempt to execute him using a different method at a later date, though what method and when remain unclear.
Alabama pioneered nitrogen gas execution in 2024, replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen to cause death by oxygen deprivation. The state has used the method multiple times since then, and the Supreme Court allowed a nitrogen gas execution to proceed as recently as 2025.
That history makes Thursday's refusal notable. The Court did not declare nitrogen hypoxia unconstitutional as a general matter. But by declining to override the 11th Circuit's finding of a "substantial risk of serious harm," the justices effectively told Alabama that its specific protocol, not the concept of nitrogen execution, needs more scrutiny.
Lee himself had originally chosen nitrogen gas as his method of execution. He later asked for a firing squad instead, arguing that nitrogen gas would subject him to unconstitutional levels of suffering. A firing squad is not legal in Alabama.
One detail in Lee's case adds a layer that conservatives who value procedural fairness should not ignore. At sentencing, a jury voted 7, 5 against the death penalty, recommending life in prison without the possibility of parole. A judge overrode that recommendation and imposed a death sentence anyway.
Alabama abolished judicial override in 2017, recognizing the practice as a troubling departure from jury authority. But the state did not make the change retroactive. Lee's death sentence, imposed under the old system, still stands.
That means Lee sits on death row today under a sentencing procedure Alabama itself decided was flawed enough to eliminate. Whether one supports capital punishment or not, that fact raises a straightforward question about consistency.
The Supreme Court's order leaves Alabama in a difficult position. The state can pursue Lee's execution by another method, but the 11th Circuit's ruling that the nitrogen protocol poses a "substantial risk of serious harm" will hang over any renewed attempt to use the gas. The case has been sent back for further review, meaning additional litigation is likely before Alabama can try again.
Governor Ivey's frustration is understandable. Lee was convicted of a brutal double murder. The families of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson have waited more than a quarter-century for the sentence to be carried out. Every delay compounds their suffering.
But the Court's decision, joined by a majority that included justices appointed by Republican presidents, suggests that Alabama's nitrogen protocol has genuine legal problems the state has not yet resolved. The path forward requires fixing the protocol or choosing a different method, not simply asking the same court to reconsider.
Justice delayed is justice denied, and the people who pay the price are never the lawyers or the justices. They are the survivors, and the families who buried their loved ones in 1998 and are still waiting for the system to finish what it started.
