The Associated Press reported Monday that a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court found that Alabama’s use of nitrogen gas for executions requires further study to determine if it violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling came days before the scheduled execution of Jeffery Lee, a 58-year-old death row inmate.
Lee is scheduled to be put to death by nitrogen gas on Thursday at a prison in south Alabama. The method, first used by the state in 2024, involves strapping a respirator to the inmate’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from lack of oxygen.
Lee filed a lawsuit last year challenging the constitutionality of the nitrogen gas method. A federal judge earlier ruled that the method does not violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The appeals court panel stopped short of staying Lee’s planned execution. However, the panel directed the lower court to consider whether a proposed alternative of execution by firing squad was feasible.
Alabama is one of several states that have adopted nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method amid a shortage of lethal injection drugs and ongoing legal challenges to lethal injection protocols. The Associated Press reported that the appeals court’s ruling adds uncertainty to the state’s execution schedule and raises broader questions about the constitutionality of execution methods that have not been thoroughly tested.