Alabama Governor Sets New Execution Date for Jeffery Lee Using Lethal Injection, Following Blocked Efforts to Execute Him with Nitrogen Gas

On July 30, 2026, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey set a new exe­cu­tion date for Jeffery Lee after the state’s unsuc­cess­ful attempt to exe­cute him using nitro­gen gas in June. Gov. Ivey set Mr. Lee’s exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion for September 17, 2026, just over three months after an Alabama fed­er­al judge per­ma­nent­ly blocked the state from using its nitro­gen gas protocol. 

This new exe­cu­tion date came after U.S. District Judge Emily Marks, the same judge who enjoined the state from using nitro­gen gas, found that Alabama offi­cials could use lethal injec­tion to car­ry out his exe­cu­tion. In her deci­sion, Judge Marks not­ed that her injunc­tion on using Alabama’s nitro­gen gas pro­to­col was ​“nar­row­ly tai­lored” and that the injunc­tion would not ​“fur­ther delay” Mr. Lee’s exe­cu­tion. Judge Marks not­ed, “[c]onsidering the total­i­ty of the cir­cum­stances, includ­ing the cir­cum­stances of dis­missal of Lee’s lethal injec­tion chal­lenge, equi­ty does not demand that the court pro­hib­it the state from exe­cut­ing Lee by lethal injec­tion, the state’s default exe­cu­tion method and one it is present­ly able to use.”

Counsel for Mr. Lee argues that the state should not be per­mit­ted to exe­cute their client by lethal injec­tion because of a 2018 agree­ment entered between Mr. Lee and the state. Mr. Lee agreed to drop his law­suit chal­leng­ing Alabama’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col under the con­di­tion that the state would not use the method to exe­cute him. His coun­sel argues that the state is bound by this agree­ment. ​“Alabama isn’t look­ing for a con­sti­tu­tion­al way to exe­cute Jeffery Lee. It’s look­ing for a way around the Constitution,” not­ed Mr. Lee’s legal team in a state­ment. ​“After los­ing twice in fed­er­al court, Alabama now revives the very lethal injec­tion method it promised to aban­don. Alabama isn’t com­ply­ing with the Constitution. It’s try­ing to outrun it.”

Mr. Lee’s coun­sel also empha­sizes anoth­er unique aspect of Mr. Lee’s case. He is one of sev­er­al Alabama pris­on­ers who had a judge impose their death sen­tence over the deci­sions of their juries. ​“The jury reject­ed a death sen­tence for Mr. Lee. A sin­gle judge imposed one any­way,” they said.

Judge Marks ulti­mate­ly agreed with state offi­cials, not­ing that the injunc­tion pro­hibits Mr. Lee’s exe­cu­tion by nitro­gen gas “[b]ut bal­anc­ing all of the equi­ties, includ­ing the state’s and the vic­tims’ inter­ests in the enforce­ment of Lee’s sen­tence, the broad­er, mod­i­fied injunc­tion Lee now seeks is not warranted.” 

On June 9, 2026, just two days before Mr. Lee’s first sched­uled exe­cu­tion, Judge Marks ​“per­ma­nent­ly enjoined” Alabama offi­cials from using nitro­gen gas to exe­cute Mr. Lee after find­ing the pro­to­col vio­lates the Eighth Amendment’s pro­hi­bi­tion on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. Judge Marks issued her rul­ing after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found the pro­to­col cre­at­ed an uncon­sti­tu­tion­al risk of severe suf­fer­ing and remand­ed the case for con­sid­er­a­tion of Mr. Lee’s pro­posed alter­na­tive method of exe­cu­tion — the fir­ing squad. Judge Marks found that Mr. Lee’s fir­ing squad pro­pos­al is ​“fea­si­ble, read­i­ly imple­ment­ed, and sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduces the sub­stan­tial risk of seri­ous harm posed by” Alabama’s nitro­gen gas pro­to­col. Alabama appealed the dis­trict court’s deci­sion; how­ev­er, the same Eleventh Circuit pan­el upheld the low­er court’s rul­ing, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied the state’s last-minute appeal, pre­vent­ing Mr. Lee’s June 11 exe­cu­tion from pro­ceed­ing as scheduled.

The day after Mr. Lee’s first exe­cu­tion date, Alabama filed a motion with the state supreme court ask­ing for the jus­tices to autho­rize a new death war­rant for Mr. Lee using lethal injec­tion, rather than nitro­gen gas. The state’s fil­ing not­ed that the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) ​“has not been barred from exe­cut­ing Lee, only from exe­cut­ing him by nitro­gen hypox­ia.” Attorney General Steve Marshall not­ed after the U.S. Supreme Court’s fail­ure to inter­vene that his office ​“is pre­pared to do what­ev­er is nec­es­sary to see Mr. Lee’s law­ful sen­tence carried out.” 

Mr. Lee was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the 1998 mur­ders of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson dur­ing a rob­bery in Orrville, Alabama. At tri­al, Mr. Lee’s jury vot­ed 7 – 5 to rec­om­mend a life sen­tence with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Under Alabama’s judi­cial over­ride law, Mr. Lee’s tri­al judge reject­ed the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion and instead imposed a death sen­tence. In 2017, Alabama abol­ished the prac­tice of judi­cial over­ride; how­ev­er, the law did not apply retroac­tive­ly. Mr. Lee is among more than two dozen pris­on­ers still sen­tenced to death in Alabama as a result of judi­cial over­ride, the major­i­ty of whom had life sen­tences from juries over­rid­den by judges. Two jurors from Mr. Lee’s orig­i­nal tri­al have said in a video sub­mit­ted as part of his clemen­cy cam­paign that they are frus­trat­ed with the tri­al judge’s deci­sion to over­rule their rec­om­men­da­tion for a life sentence.