MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Alabama’s use of nitrogen gas to put prisoners to death needs more study of whether it violates a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, days before a scheduled execution by that method.
The execution method, first used in 2024 by the state of Alabama, involves strapping a respirator to the person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from lack of oxygen.
A lawsuit challenging the method was filed last year by death row inmate Jeffery Lee. The 58-year-old inmate is scheduled to be executed with nitrogen gas on Thursday at a south Alabama prison. Earlier a federal judge had ruled the nitrogen gas method does not violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The three-judge appeals court panel stopped short Monday of staying Lee’s planned execution. However, the panel asked the judge to consider whether a proposed alternative of a firing squad was feasible.
Lee was convicted of killing two people during a 1998 robbery. Attorneys for Lee had urged the state to hold off on authorizing an execution date until his legal challenge over the method was decided.
Nitrogen gas has been used in eight executions nationally: seven times in Alabama and once in Louisiana. Lee’s attorneys argued it causes excessive suffering. Alabama’s last nitrogen gas execution took more than 30 minutes to complete
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