Alabama is waging a last-minute legal fight to execute a man with nitrogen gas, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to set aside a judge’s findings that the method violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The execution method involves strapping a respirator to the person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from a lack of oxygen.

Background

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Alabama’s nitrogen protocol is unconstitutional and blocked the state from using it to execute Jeffery Lee, 49. The Alabama attorney general’s office is appealing the decision. Lee was scheduled to be the ninth person put to death by nitrogen.

The state has maintained that the method is constitutional and causes no more suffering than other execution methods. However, Lee’s attorneys said Alabama is attempting to move forward with an execution method that courts have found unconstitutional.

Legal Battle

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision Wednesday night, rejected Alabama’s request to stay the ruling. The court earlier said the three minutes that it could take for an inmate to lose awareness is an “intolerable” time frame, “given the suffering that would likely take place under Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol.”

A jury convicted Lee of two counts of capital murder for killing Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson while robbing a pawnshop on Dec. 12, 1998. Prosecutors said Lee entered Jimmy’s Pawnshop with a sawed-off shotgun and shot Ellis, the owner of the store, and Thompson, a store employee.

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.