A federal judge on Tuesday permanently blocked Alabama from executing an inmate with nitrogen gas after declaring the method violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Emily Marks issued the ruling hours after an appeals court reversed her initial finding that the method was constitutional.

Background

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office is appealing the decision. The state has maintained that the method is constitutional, but Judge Marks wrote that the appeals court found the method carried “a substantial risk of serious harm.”

The execution method involves strapping a respirator to the person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from lack of oxygen. Nitrogen has been used in eight executions in the United States — seven times in Alabama and once in Louisiana.

Judge Marks noted that the state has two other authorized execution methods, lethal injection and the electric chair, and that the inmate, Jeffrey Lee, is “not entitled to an injunction barring the state from executing him using one of those methods.”

Reaction

Death penalty opponents and critics of the controversial execution method have welcomed the decision. The Rev. Jeff Hood, who served as spiritual adviser at two nitrogen executions, said, “I pray that we are witnessing the collapse of this horrific method nationwide.”

Original reporting: Alabama News Network — read the source article.