The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to overturn a lower court ruling that barred Alabama from using nitrogen gas to carry out the execution of a death row inmate who was convicted in 1998 for killing two people during a robbery.
The high court on Thursday evening voted to decline the state’s petition and did not provide an explanation for its decision. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch indicated they would grant Alabama’s request to lift an injunction on the execution method but did not issue a written dissent.
Jeffery Lee was convicted of capital murder in the murders of two people, Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson, as he robbed a pawn shop in Orville, Alabama, in 1998. A trial court later said he should be sentenced to death….