Alabama Reverses Course on How It Plans to Kill This Man

Alabama can't execute 49-year-old Jeffery Lee with his originally chosen method of nitrogen gas, but it plans to move ahead with his execution on Thursday night all the same using lethal injection. NBC News sees Lee's case as a test of what it means when a state promises not to use a particular execution method, then reverses course. Lee was sentenced to die for the 1998 pawnshop killings of Jimmy Ellis—an Elvis tribute artist—and Ellis' ex-wife, Elaine Thompson, near Selma. NBC News explains that in 2018, Lee chose nitrogen hypoxia as his preferred method of death despite the state not having a protocol for it at the time.

He also agreed to dismiss a lawsuit he had filed two years prior that challenged the state's lethal injection protocol because Alabama agreed that "if he is to be executed, defendants will carry out that execution by nitrogen hypoxia," reports the AP. But in 2025, Lee sued again, arguing the nitrogen protocol causes "conscious suffocation"; he won a federal injunction blocking its use. He has requested to die by firing squad, which is not a method available in Alabama. Lee's lawyers argue the state is bound by the terms of its agreement to not use lethal injection. Lee has asked the Supreme Court to intervene. His execution is scheduled for 6pm.