A federal judge in the United States has permanently barred Alabama from executing an inmate using nitrogen gas, declaring the method a violation of the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. US District Judge Emily C. Marks issued the ruling on Tuesday, halting the scheduled Thursday execution of Jeffery Lee at a state prison. Lee was convicted of a double murder committed during a 1998 pawnshop robbery.
The decision came one day after an appeals court reversed an earlier ruling by Marks herself, in which she had found nitrogen gas execution to be constitutional. Following that reversal, Marks issued the permanent injunction in a 26-page ruling that grappled candidly with the limits of legal protection. "The Constitution does not guarantee a painless death, and human life cannot be purposefully extinguished without some risk of pain," she wrote, acknowledging that virtually any execution method would face constitutional challenge.
Nitrogen gas execution works by placing a mask over the condemned prisoner's face and administering pure nitrogen, causing death through oxygen deprivation. Proponents of the method argue the prisoner loses consciousness quickly and dies within minutes. Critics contend it causes unacceptable suffering. Alabama began using the method in 2024, partly because pharmaceutical manufacturers have refused to allow their drugs to be used in lethal injections — the most common execution method across the twenty US states that still carry out the death penalty. Nitrogen gas has been used in eight executions in the United States to date: seven in Alabama and one in Louisiana.
Marks noted that Alabama retains two other legally authorised execution methods — lethal injection and the electric chair — and ruled that Lee is not entitled to block his execution by those means. She also found that a firing squad, Lee's stated preference and a method he proposed as an alternative, could feasibly be carried out at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, where he is currently held.
A spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state is reviewing the decision and considering its next steps, including an appeal. The case is widely expected to reach the US Supreme Court, which has previously allowed nitrogen gas executions to proceed. The legal uncertainty surrounding the method reflects a broader, unresolved debate in American law over what constitutes humane punishment — one that shows no signs of reaching consensus.