The legal team representing a convicted double murderer has made efforts to delay his scheduled execution as they challenge the use of nitrogen gas as a method of carrying out capital punishment.
Jeffery James Lee, aged 49, was found guilty of the murders of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson during a robbery at Ellis’ pawn shop in 1998. Despite Alabama Governor Kay Ivey setting an execution date of June 11 for Lee, his lawyers have raised concerns regarding the humaneness of the nitrogen execution process.
The execution date was finalized despite the pending federal lawsuit contesting the constitutionality of the nitrogen execution method. A federal judge has scheduled a bench trial for April 27 to review Lee’s argument that the method violates the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Lee’s legal team had requested the Alabama Supreme Court to postpone setting an execution date until after the outcome of the challenge to the nitrogen execution process.
Beginning in 2024, Alabama adopted the use of nitrogen gas for certain executions. This method involves fitting a gas mask over the individual’s face, replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, ultimately leading to death due to oxygen deprivation. Nationally, the nitrogen method has been employed in eight executions, with seven in Alabama and one in Louisiana.
Lee was convicted on two counts of capital murder for the killings of Ellis and Thompson in December 1998 in Orrville, Alabama. Prosecutors stated that Lee entered Jimmy’s Pawnshop armed with a sawed-off shotgun and fatally shot both Ellis, the store owner, and Thompson, an employee.
Following a jury vote of 7-5 in favor of sentencing Lee to life imprisonment, a judge overrode the decision and imposed a death sentence. Alabama abolished judicial override in 2017, prohibiting judges from disregarding a jury’s sentencing verdict in death penalty cases.
