Alabama seeks to execute man by lethal injection after court ruled against nitrogen method

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama on Friday asked permission to execute a man by lethal injection after court rulings blocked the use of nitrogen gas and cast doubt on the future of the state’s gas method.

The Alabama Attorney General’s office filed a motion asking the Alabama Supreme Court to authorize a death warrant for Jeffery Lee, this time using lethal injection. The request came less than 24 hours after the state was thwarted in plans to use nitrogen to execute Lee, who was convicted of killing two people during a 1998 robbery.

“In sum, ADOC has not been barred from executing Lee, only from executing him by nitrogen hypoxia,” state lawyers wrote.

A spokesperson for Lee’s legal team said they did not have an immediate comment on the action. The next step is for his attorneys to respond to the request at the Alabama Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday night refused to lift an injunction blocking the state from executing Lee with nitrogen gas. A district judge issued the injunction after finding the state’s nitrogen protocol violated the ban on cruel and unusual punishments established in the Constitution's Eighth Amendment. The injunction, however, did not block the state from using one of its other authorized methods, lethal injection or the electric chair, to put Lee to death.

A spokesperson for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall declined to comment Friday, citing the pending litigation. Marshall on Thursday said he would “never stop seeking justice” for Lee’s victims.

“The State is prepared to do whatever is necessary to see Mr. Lee’s lawful sentence carried out,” Marshall said Thursday.

The development came after a week of legal rulings that cast doubt on the future of nitrogen executions, a method the state began using in 2024. It involves strapping a respirator to a person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from lack of oxygen.

Lee filed a lawsuit in 2025 challenging the constitutionality of the state’s nitrogen protocol. U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks, after holding a three-day bench trial, initially ruled the method constitutional. However, a three-judge appellate panel on Monday reversed part of her conclusions and sent the case back. Marks issued a new finding Tuesday that the state’s execution protocol violates the Eighth Amendment and permanently enjoined the state from using it to execute Lee.

The state asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the injunction so Lee’s execution could go forward Thursday night. The court on Thursday declined to do so. The high court voted 6-3 and did not explain its reasoning. Three of the conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch — said they would grant Alabama’s request to lift the injunction and let the execution go forward.

The Supreme Court decision was only a ruling on Alabama’s emergency request to stay or lift the injunction. The court has not made a merits decision on the constitutionality of using nitrogen gas, said Robin Maher executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. However, Maher said there is now a very significant ruling by a district judge that “this method, as Alabama has chosen to use it, is unconstitutional.”

“Anyone else who’s facing a potential execution in Alabama, in which the state intends to use nitrogen gas, will argue that the very same equities that resulted in Alabama being prohibited from using it in Mr. Lee’s case should also prohibit the state from using it in their case,” Maher said.

Lee was convicted 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.

Nitrogen has been used in eight executions in the United States — seven times in Alabama and once in Louisiana. Lee was scheduled to be the ninth.

Alabama could appeal the case back to the Supreme Court, which so far has never ruled a state’s execution method unconstitutional.

Deborah W. Denno, a professor at Fordham Law School, said it’s difficult to predict what will happen.

“What seems pretty clear to me is that Alabama is going to have a very hard time carrying out a nitrogen hypoxia execution. It’s basically three courts telling you they can’t do that,” Denno said.

The Alabama Supreme Court recently authorized a nitrogen execution for another Alabama inmate, Michael Taylor. His lawyers asked the court to recall the warrant in the wake of what happened with Lee’s case. His lawyers wrote they don’t suggest the Supreme Court's “denial of emergency relief constitutes a ruling on the merits of the State’s appeal” but said the state shouldn't move ahead for now.

This undated photo from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Jeffery Lee, who was sentenced to death for killing two people during a 1998 robbery at a pawn shop. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)

Abraham Bonowitz, of the group Death Penalty Action, leads a demonstration outside the Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., on Monday, June 8, 2026, to oppose an upcoming execution in Alabama. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

This undated photo provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections on Thursday, June 11, 2026, shows Jeffery Lee, who was sentenced to death for killing two people during a 1998 robbery at a pawn shop. (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)

Protesters gather outside the Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., on Monday, June 8, 2026, to oppose an upcoming execution in Alabama. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

Iran will not allow military vessels to transit through the Strait of Hormuz under an agreement the Islamic Republic is currently negotiating with Oman, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister told state TV late on Tuesday night.

The top diplomats of the two countries met to discuss managing commercial shipping traffic in the vital waterway, which remains largely shut down nearly six months after the Iran war began.

Officials in Thailand said the USS Lincoln was scheduled for a brief stopover in the country as the aircraft carrier prepares to reposition after a lengthy deployment, including support for the Iran war.

Meanwhile, Israel’s strikes continued in Gaza, testing the already fragile ceasefire with Hamas.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Iran and Oman have reached an understanding on a new framework for managing ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz that would exclude military vessels from traversing the vital waterway, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told state TV late on Tuesday night.

“If the understanding becomes binding, no military vessel will be permitted to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. “No military vessel at all.”

Gharibabadi said the proposed route is temporary, and that Iran and Oman must negotiate within 30 to 60 days on a permanent maritime traffic scheme.

Commercial shipping traffic into the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman would pass entirely through Iranian waters, while the outbound route would pass partly through Iranian waters and partly through Oman’s territorial waters, he said.

The Trump administration told Oman it opposed parts of the evolving deal, including the joint Iranian and Omani management of the exit route out of the passage that’s critical to global supplies of oil and natural gas.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way.”

An Israeli strike on a tent for displaced people Wednesday in southern Gaza killed one person and wounded at least four others, according to officials at the territory’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it struck a “military operative,” without elaborating.

Even as U.S. efforts to advance the fragile ceasefire in the nearly three-year Israel-Hamas war continue, Palestinians in the strip have reported a surge in deadly Israeli strikes.

Israel has said it targets Hamas and other militants who pose a threat, as well as those who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed that day in Israel and 251 abducted by militants. Israel's retaliatory military campaign in the enclave killed more than 73,400 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The health ministry, part of the Hamas-controlled government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants.

Dubai International Airport, one of the world's busiest travel hubs, said Wednesday it saw a sharp drop in passengers during the second quarter as the war with Iran disrupted air travel and prompted many travelers to choose routes that avoided the Middle East.

The airport recorded 13 million passengers in the second quarter, down 31.3% in passenger traffic in the first-half of 2026 compared to the same period last year, with 31.5 million passengers

Air traffic in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Gulf region was disrupted by shutdowns and restrictions since Feb. 28. The airport itself suffered minor damage in attacks from Iran.

CEO Paul Griffiths noted, however, that passenger volume has steadily increased each month in the second quarter, and said the momentum is expected to continue in the second half.

The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln will make a stop in Thailand after its grueling deployment in the Middle East, Thai officials said, without specifying a date or port for security reasons.

The Lincoln has been deployed during the Iran war. Its very lengthy deployment, including a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 250 days, raised concerns about deteriorating mental health among the crew.

A statement from the Royal Thai Navy on Tuesday said a short stopover by U.S. Navy ships was for recuperation and that no military exercises would be carried out during the visit.

Germany has ended the military mission of its advisers in Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdish region after years of supporting the U.S.-led coalition’s efforts against Islamic State militants, the Kurdish region’s Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs said Wednesday.

The ministry said it held an official ceremony at Camp Stephan at Irbil International Airport to mark the mission’s end. Germany had already reduced its footprint in Iraq but had maintained a small contingent at the base.

The end of the German mission comes as U.S. forces have also begun withdrawing from northern Iraq ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline to end their military presence in the country.

U.S. bases in the Kurdish region have regularly come under attack since the U.S. and Israel launched the Iran war on Feb. 28.

Human Rights Watch condemned a decision by Yemen’s Houthis to refer at least six people to a criminal court known for trying terror and espionage charges.

The New York-based advocacy group said at least five of those facing charges in the notorious Specialized Criminal Court are either United Nations employees or civil society workers. The group also said one of the defendants, Ali Mudhwahi, a national public health expert with UNICEF, was tortured and forced to confess that vaccines were spying tools.

Since the Houthis took over in 2015, dozens of journalists, political activists and members of religious minorities have stood trial in the Sanaa-based court on charges that are usually punishable by death.

Palestinians look at a food-aid warehouse damaged in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a nearby house in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians walk past a food-aid warehouse damaged in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a nearby house in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians walk past a food-aid warehouse damaged in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a nearby house in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)