Alabama Executes Jeffery Lee by Lethal Injection

Alabama executed Jeffery Lee by lethal injection on September 17, 2026, at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility, following a legal dispute over the method of execution. Lee, 49, was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m., according to authorities. His execution came three months after courts blocked the state from using nitrogen gas, which Lee had initially chosen as his preferred method. Lee was convicted in 2000 for the murders of Jimmy Ellis, a pawn shop owner and Elvis impersonator, and his employee Elaine Thompson during a robbery in Orrville, Alabama, on December 12, 1998. Another employee survived by playing dead. Despite a jury voting 7-5 to recommend life without parole, the trial judge overrode the recommendation and sentenced Lee to death, a practice known as judicial override that Alabama abolished in 2017 but did not apply retroactively. The execution followed a series of legal challenges. In 2018, Lee agreed to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, and the state pledged not to use lethal injection. However, after Alabama began using nitrogen gas in 2024, witnesses reported disturbing executions, leading Lee to sue. Courts, including the 11th U.S.