SCOTUS upholds order blocking Alabama nitrogen gas execution

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a Thursday night order rejecting Alabama officials’ request to move forward with an execution using the controversial nitrogen gas technique. The state petitioned SCOTUS to overturn a lower court order that prohibited the Alabama Department of Corrections from using nitrogen gas to execute prisoners via suffocation, known as nitrogen hypoxia.

The high court’s brief order did not explain the reason for the denial, only that Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the decision. The order stopped the execution of death row inmate Jeffrey Lee, scheduled for Thursday night.

What’s controversial about a nitrogen gas execution? Nitrogen gas execution involves strapping a prisoner down and placing a gas mask on his or her face. The mask supplies the prisoner with nitrogen gas instead of oxygen, causing them to die of hypoxia. Some advocates maintain the method is efficient and painless, while critics argue it amounts to torture. Others say smothering constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and should be considered illegal under the U.S. Constitution.

How has the state responded? Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall characterized the SCOTUS decision as a miscarriage of justice, specifically for the families of the two people Lee murdered in 1998. Those families were prepared to have justice finally be served, and the state will continue to seek that justice until Lee’s sentence is carried out, Marshall wrote on Thursday.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill echoed Marshall’s sentiments in a separate Friday statement. Anti-death penalty activism denied victims’ families the justice they waited decades for, Murrill wrote. Louisiana will do all it can to support Alabama to resolve this, she added.