An Alabama man facing the death penalty by nitrogen gas was spared Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request from the state to proceed with the execution. The brief order from the high court came well after the hour originally planned to initiate the execution of Jeffery Lee.
The ruling follows a petition by the Alabama Attorney General's Office to reverse a federal judge's decision to permanently ban the state from using nitrogen hypoxia to put Lee to death. On Tuesday, that federal judge ruled that Alabama’s nitrogen protocol violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The Supreme Court reached its decision with a 6-3 vote, refusing to set aside the lower-court ruling that found the method to be unconstitutionally cruel. No explanation for the ruling was provided.