Overview
- U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks issued a permanent injunction Tuesday that stops Alabama from using nitrogen hypoxia to execute Jeffrey Lee and specifically bars the state from carrying out his scheduled June 11 execution by that method.
- An 11th Circuit panel had reversed an earlier ruling and found the protocol likely causes one to three minutes of 'severe air hunger', remanding the case to the district court to consider feasible, less painful alternatives.
- Judge Marks concluded that the evidence shows a substantial risk of severe suffering under Alabama's nitrogen protocol and ruled that execution by firing squad is a feasible alternative that would reduce that risk.
- Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has filed an appeal of Marks's order, which the state is likely to press up the court ladder and could result in a Supreme Court review that would determine the national legality of the method.
- Nitrogen hypoxia forces pure nitrogen through a mask to displace oxygen and cause death by asphyxiation, witnesses to prior Alabama executions described gasping, convulsing and prolonged processes in some cases, and reporting differs on how many such executions have occurred nationally.