A rare move by the Supreme Court prevented Alabama from executing prisoner Jeffery Lee with nitrogen gas in June. But if Lee believed the surprise ruling would afford him a reprieve from the execution chamber, he was wrong.
\n\nAlabama intends to put him to death Thursday evening by lethal injection, setting up a legal challenge because he didn’t choose such a method and the state initially agreed not to use it.
\n\nBarring another last-minute court intervention, Lee, 49, is scheduled to be executed for the fatal shootings of two people in a 1998 pawnshop robbery near Selma: store owner Jimmy Ellis, an acclaimed Elvis Presley impersonator, and his ex-wife Elaine Thompson, who also worked at the store. Lee’s lawyers insist he isn’t trying to permanently halt his execution but wants the state to apply the method he chose in a way that doesn’t violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
\n\nLee has also asked to die by firing squad as an alternative, although Alabama doesn’t authorize it.
\n\nIn 2018, Lee agreed to be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia, in which a person breathes the gas through a mask apparatus and is deprived of oxygen. He elected it…
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business