Federal judge blocks Alabama nitrogen gas executions as cruel punishment

Alabama’s experiment with nitrogen hypoxia hit a constitutional wall Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks permanently barred the state from using the method in executions, saying it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling came in the case of death row inmate Jeffery Lee, whose execution was set for June 11, 2026, at a south Alabama prison.

Marks ordered the Alabama Department of Corrections to identify an alternate execution method if the state moves ahead with Lee’s execution. Her decision followed the first bench trial in the country to examine whether nitrogen gas executions are constitutional, a case that had put Alabama’s newest death-penalty protocol under a national microscope.

The method works by strapping a respirator to a person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from lack of oxygen. In finding the protocol unconstitutional, Marks sided with the view that the procedure carries an unacceptable risk of suffering, rejecting the state’s argument that nitrogen hypoxia is a humane and painless option. Critics and Lee’s lawyers had argued the opposite, saying the method can inflict unnecessary pain and should be barred under the Eighth Amendment.

The ruling was also shaped by a week of legal whiplash. On May 29, a federal judge had ruled that nitrogen gas executions were constitutional and could proceed. Then, on June 8, a federal appeals court said Alabama’s use of nitrogen gas needed more study to determine whether it violates the Constitution. Marks’ permanent block intensified that uncertainty and left the state’s execution protocol in legal limbo.

Alabama authorized nitrogen hypoxia in 2018 as a backup for death sentences if lethal injection drugs were unavailable or lethal injection was ruled unconstitutional. The state first used nitrogen gas to carry out an execution in 2024, becoming the first in the nation to do so. By late May 2026, nitrogen gas had been used in eight executions total, seven in Alabama and one in Louisiana.

The decision matters far beyond one case in Montgomery. If Alabama cannot rely on nitrogen gas, states that adopted or considered the method as an alternative to lethal injection may have to reassess whether it can survive constitutional scrutiny at all. For now, the ruling places one of the death penalty’s newest methods under a direct federal ban and raises the odds that future execution protocols will face even closer judicial review.