Alabama set to execute man for pawnshop killings months after his nitrogen gas execution blocked
Lee’s lawyers sought a stay as the state argued 7-5 jury recommendation can be overridden and its method switch is allowed.
- Alabama is scheduled to execute Jeffery Lee by lethal injection tonight at William C. Holman Correctional Facility for killing two people during a 1998 pawn shop robbery in rural Dallas County.
- State officials shifted to lethal injection after a judge blocked their nitrogen gas plan three months ago. Lee killed Jimmy Ellis, the pawn shop owner, and Elaine Thompson, an employee, in Orrville west of Selma on Dec. 12, 1998.
- The jury that convicted Lee voted 7-5 to recommend life imprisonment, but the trial judge overrode that recommendation. Alabama abolished judicial override in 2017, though the law was not retroactive, leaving Lee and others on death row.
- Lee's attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution, arguing the State is bound by a prior agreement to use nitrogen hypoxia instead of lethal injection. The State's attorney general asked the court to let the execution proceed.
- Lethal injection remains Alabama's primary execution method, though the State began using nitrogen gas in 2024. Elsewhere, a judge blocked Georgia's execution plan on Wednesday, reflecting ongoing legal challenges to execution protocols nationwide.
46 Articles
46 Articles
Alabama can't execute 49-year-old Jeffery Lee with his original method of nitrogen gas, but it plans to move ahead with his execution on Thursday night all the same using lethal injection. NBC News sees Lee's case as a test of what it means when a state promised not to...
After nitrogen execution blocked, convicted killer of famous Elvis impersonator set to die by lethal injection in Alabama
Alabama is set to execute a man with a chemical injection, months after a judge blocked the state from putting him to death with nitrogen gas.
Alabama Sets Lethal Injection Thursday For Killer Of Elvis Impersonator After Nitrogen Ban
An Alabama inmate convicted of killing two people during a 1998 robbery, including a well-known Elvis Presley impersonator, faces execution by lethal injection Thursday night. Jeffery Lee, 49, is scheduled to receive the injection at South Alabama’s William C. Holman Correctional Facility. Lee was convicted in 2000 of capital murder for the shooting deaths of […] Alabama Sets Lethal Injection Thursday For Killer Of Elvis Impersonator After Nitro…
Alabama inmate who stopped nitrogen execution scheduled to die by lethal injection
The state of Alabama Thursday plans to execute a death row inmate amid clemency efforts by death penalty opponents, who cite a jury’s initial recommendation that he be sentenced to life without parole, a recommendation later overruled by a judge. Jeffery Lee, 49, was convicted of the murders of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson during […]
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