Lee’s case became the latest to test the legality of nitrogen gas executions. A lower court had ruled the method is unconstitutionally cruel.

The Supreme Court rejected Alabama’s attempt to execute Jeffery Lee with nitrogen gas after lower courts stopped the state from executing him with that method. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch voted to side with the state,

Moments after a federal judge permanently blocked his execution by nitrogen gas, Lee told NBC News he was prepared to keep fighting. His fate remains uncertain.

The State of Alabama attempted June 11 to carry out its first execution of 2026, but two hours after its scheduled start time at 6 p.m., the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a lower federal court's ruling that the State of Alabama cannot use nitrogen gas to execute Jeffery Lee.

The Supreme Court said Alabama can't execute inmate Jeffery Lee using nitrogen gas, a controversial method a lower court said is likely unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing Alabama’s emergency request to reinstate the nitrogen gas execution of Jeffery Lee, hours before his scheduled death. A federal judge has now declared the method unconstitutional,