The convicted killer of a famous Elvis Presley impersonator is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday night in Alabama, three months after his last execution date was canceled by a judge
from putting him to death with nitrogen gas.
asserted
date → convict → gas
Jeffery Lee, 49, is scheduled to receive an injection beginning at 6 p.m. at south Alabama's William C. Holman Correctional Facility for killing two people during a 1998 pawnshop robbery in rural Dallas County.
asserted
Lee → schedule → County
Alabama originally planned to execute Lee on June 11 using nitrogen gas, a relatively new execution method the state tested for the first time in early 2024.
asserted
state → plan → 2024
It has been used multiple times since then, within and outside of Alabama, drawing scrutiny and criticism from some who have argued the method is poorly understood and likely causes unnecessary suffering.
asserted
method → use → suffering
Lee's first execution was blocked by an
by District Judge Emily Marks, who ruled Alabama's nitrogen gas protocol was unconstitutionally cruel and violated the inmate's constitutional rights under the Eighth Amendment.
asserted
protocol → block → Amendment
It barred Alabama from ever putting Lee to death using that protocol, so the Alabama attorney general's office quickly filed paperwork seeking a new execution date when he would be executed by lethal injection instead.
asserted
he → bar → injection
Lee and his supporters have made a final bid to spare him, noting the jury in his case had made a recommendation of life imprisonment, which the judge overrode.
asserted
judge → make → which
His attorneys also argued in court that the state should not be legally allowed to switch execution methods.
asserted
state → argue → methods
Twenty-six inmates have been executed around the U.S. to date this year, including a Texas man given a lethal injection for his conviction in a triple murder at his neighbor's home.
asserted
inmates → execute → home
Elsewhere, a judge blocked plans Wednesday by the state of Georgia to execute a man who killed two real estate agents.
asserted
who → block → agents
The double murder occurred on Dec. 12, 1998, at Jimmy's Pawn Shop in Orrville, a small town west of Selma.
asserted
murder → occur → Selma
Jimmy Ellis, the store's owner, and Elaine Thompson, a store employee, were shot and killed.
asserted
Ellis → shoot → ?
Another employee survived by playing dead.
asserted
employee → survive → ?
The surviving witness testified that Lee entered the store, asked to see wedding rings and said he would be back after getting money from his grandmother.
asserted
he → survive → grandmother
Lee returned a short time later with a sawed-off shotgun and shot Ellis, Thompson and the other employee.
asserted
Lee → return → Ellis
The surviving witness fell to the floor, pretending to be dead, and called 911 once Lee left the store.
asserted
Lee → survive → store
Ellis, a singer whose voice resembled Elvis Presley, had gained a national following for a time as an Elvis impersonator.
asserted
voice → resemble → impersonator
He performed as the masked singer "Orion" and was the subject of a 2015 documentary.
asserted
He → perform → documentary
Lee was convicted in 2000 of capital murder and attempted murder.
asserted
Lee → convict → murder
Lee is one of about two dozen people on Alabama's death row who were sentenced to death despite jury recommendations they receive life sentences.
asserted
they → sentence → sentences
The jury that convicted Lee of capital murder voted 7-5 to recommend a sentence of life without parole, but the trial judge overrode them and sentenced him to death.
asserted
judge → convict → death
In 2017, Alabama abolished judicial override and stopped allowing judges to change juries' sentencing decision in capital cases.
asserted
judges → abolish → cases
But the law was not retroactive, leaving Lee and others on death row.
asserted
law → leave → row
Supporters of Lee's clemency bid held a rally Tuesday outside the Alabama Capitol under the banner, "HONOR THE JURY."
Lee's attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution to consider if the state may switch to lethal injection.
uncertain
state → hold → injection
Lee filed a lawsuit in 2016 challenging the state's lethal injection protocol.
asserted
Lee → file → protocol
After Alabama authorized nitrogen as an execution method, Lee selected it as his preferred method.
asserted
Lee → authorize → method
He agreed to dismiss the lethal injection lawsuit in 2018 because the state agreed that "if he is to be executed, defendants will carry out that execution by nitrogen hypoxia."
asserted
defendants → agree → hypoxia
Lee's lawyers argued the state is bound by the terms of that agreement to not use lethal injection.
asserted
state → argue → injection
They said the state could revise its nitrogen protocol to make it constitutional or use a firing squad.
uncertain
it → say → squad
"The petition asks this Court to determine whether the State may execute Mr. Lee by lethal injection notwithstanding its prior representation that it would execute him by nitrogen hypoxia," his attorney wrote in a filing with the high court.
uncertain
attorney → ask → court
The state attorney general's office asked the high court to let the execution proceed, arguing nothing precludes the switch to lethal injection.
asserted
nothing → ask → injection
Nearly twenty-eight years is decades too long," lawyers with the attorney general's office wrote.
asserted
lawyers → write → office
For decades, lethal injection was the generally preferred U.S. execution method until problems procuring and administering the drugs led states, including Alabama, to consider alternatives.
asserted
problems → prefer → alternatives
Lethal injection remains Alabama's primary execution method.
asserted
injection → remain → ?
But in 2024, the state began carrying out some executions using nitrogen gas, which involves replacing breathable air with gas through a respirator mask, causing death from lack of oxygen.
asserted
which → begin → oxygen
Nitrogen has now been used in seven executions in Alabama and one in Louisiana.
asserted
Nitrogen → use → Louisiana
The Aporia
