--- title: 'Alabama Is Scheduled to Execute Jeffery Lee Despite a Jury’s Recommendation for a Life Sentence' description: 'UPDATE: On September 17, 2026, the US Supreme Court denied Mr. Lee’s writ for certiorari and denied to stay his execution. Alabama carried out his…' canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/alabama-is-scheduled-to-execute-jeffery-lee-despite-a-jurys-recommendation-for-a-life-sentence' section: news date: '2026-09-16T00:00:00-04:00' updated: '2026-09-21T10:36:18-04:00' source: 'Death Penalty Information Center' --- UPDATE: On September 17, 2026, the US Supreme Court denied Mr. Lee's writ for certiorari and denied to stay his execution. Alabama carried out his execution later that evening. Alabama is scheduled to execute Jeffery Lee by lethal injection on September 17, 2026, nearly three decades after a jury in Dallas County voted to sentence him to life without the possibility of parole. Mr. Lee was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1998 murders of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson during a robbery in Orrville, Alabama. Mr. Lee’s jury voted 7-5 to recommend a life sentence without the possibility of parole, but 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](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/alabama-legislature-votes-to-end-judicial-override); however, the law did not apply retroactively. Mr. Lee is among 25 prisoners still sentenced to death in Alabama as a result of judicial override, the majority of whom had life sentence recommendations 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. Between 1976 and 2011, Alabama judges overrode jury sentencing verdicts 107 times, and in 98 of those cases, judges imposed a death sentence after a jury had voted for life, according to data compiled by the Equal Justice Initiative. One juror from Mr. Lee’s trial told *AL.com* that she did not know a judge could override the jury’s recommendation and said the verdict she and her fellow jurors reached should be honored. “The system just did what it wanted to do, and it didn’t matter what the jury had decided,” the juror said. Among the 25 people affected by judicial override statewide, five were sentenced to death despite unanimous 12-0 jury votes for life. Advocates and former government officials—including former Chief Justices Sue Bell Cobb, Roy Moore, and Drayton Nabers Jr., who span the political spectrum—have called on Governor Kay Ivey to grant clemency in these cases before she leaves office in January 2027. A campaign called [We The Jury](https://wethejury-al.com/) has organized this year to press the governor’s office on the issue. Governor Ivey, who signed the ban on judicial override on her first day in office in 2017, has not indicated how she intends to handle the remaining cases. She has approved more executions than any Alabama governor in the modern era but has also commuted two death sentences during her tenure, citing [doubts about guilt](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/alabama-governor-grants-clemency-to-robin-rocky-myers-sparing-him-from-execution) and [fairness of the underlying conviction](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/alabama-governor-commutes-charles-burtons-death-sentence-after-calls-from-broad-coalition-of-supporters). Mr. Lee’s case has already drawn national attention this year after his legal team raised constitutional challenges to Alabama’s nitrogen gas execution protocol, which led a federal judge to [enjoin the state from using its nitrogen gas](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/alabama-federal-judges-block-state-from-using-nitrogen-gas-to-execute-jeffery-lee) protocol to execute him. In June, Gov. Ivey set a new execution date for Mr. Lee, this time by lethal injection. The new execution date followed U.S. District Judge Emily Marks’ permanent injunction, finding the state’s nitrogen gas protocol violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Judge Marks issued this 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 implementable, and significantly reduces the substantial risk of serious harm posed by” Alabama’s nitrogen gas protocol. Alabama appealed this 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 from being executed on June 11. [Mr. Lee’s September 17 execution date](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/alabama-governor-sets-new-execution-date-for-jeffery-lee-using-lethal-injection-following-blocked-efforts-to-execute-him-with-nitrogen-gas) came after Judge Marks 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 enjoinment 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.” Rick Rojas, [Alabama Is Set to Execute a Murderer. The Jury Wanted Him to Live.](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/us/alabama-execution-jeffrey-lee.html?eafs_enabled=false), The New York Times, September 12, 2026; Ivana Hrynkiw, [Juries wanted them to live. Alabama judges sent them to die. Will Kay Ivey side with the jurors?,](https://www.al.com/news/2026/09/juries-wanted-them-to-live-alabama-judges-sent-them-to-die-will-kay-ivey-side-with-the-jurors.html) AL.com, September 11, 2026.