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ATMORE, Ala. — <\/span>An Alabama man facing the death penalty by nitrogen gas<\/a> was spared Thursday as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to set aside a lower-court ruling that found the method is unconstitutionally cruel, issuing a brief order that came well after the hour originally planned to initiate Jeffery Lee\u2019s execution.<\/p>\n The justices decided not to lift an injunction blocking Alabama from carrying out what would have been the nation\u2019s ninth execution by nitrogen gas, rejecting a last-minute legal battle by the state as it sought to carry out the sentence in the evening. A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections said the execution was off for the evening and the state would not try another method.<\/p>\n The high court voted 6-3 and did not explain its reasoning. Three of the conservative justices \u2014 Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch \u2014 said they would grant Alabama\u2019s request to lift the injunction and let the execution go forward.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile I am disappointed the Supreme Court did not allow the state to proceed with Lee\u2019s chosen method of execution, I remain committed to ensuring that justice is ultimately served for his victims,\u201d Gov. Kay Ivey said.<\/p>\n In a statement the legal team for Lee, 49, hailed the decision and noted that his jury had voted for a sentence of life, which a judge overruled. <\/p>\n \u201cHis jury voted for life. Two courts ruled the method unconstitutional. Today, the Constitution prevailed,\u201d the statement said. \u201cNow Governor Ivey can finish what the jury started: restore the jury\u2019s verdict of life without parole.\u201d<\/p>\n The ruling was at least a temporary, rare victory for opponents of capital punishment in a state that has had one of the busiest death chambers in the country. And it capped an extraordinary legal back-and-forth over the humaneness of nitrogen gas as an execution method. <\/p>\n Lee filed a lawsuit challenging Alabama\u2019s protocol as a violation of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and U.S. District Judge Emily Marks ruled the method constitutional<\/a> in May. <\/p>\n But a three-judge panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed her decision<\/a> Monday, saying the three minutes it could take for an inmate to lose awareness is an \u201cintolerable\u201d time frame \u201cgiven the suffering that would likely take place under Alabama\u2019s nitrogen hypoxia protocol.\u201d <\/p>\n Marks reevaluated the case and ruled again<\/a> Tuesday saying Lee had shown \u201cthat the protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.\u201d The state appealed to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that ruling stands, it would be unprecedented in American history. Not only does it portend the first-ever permanent ban on a legislatively enacted method, but it would expand the concept of cruelty well beyond the bounds of the Eighth Amendment,\u201d lawyers with the Alabama Attorney General\u2019s Office wrote. <\/p>\n Lee\u2019s lawyers asked the high court to keep the execution on hold, saying in a response that Alabama was asking it to intervene at the eleventh hour \u201cto allow an execution that has been found unconstitutional to proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n Prison officials said Lee did not request a final meal Thursday but had potato chips, Skittles, water and a Sprite in the hours ahead of his possible execution. <\/p>\n Marks did not block the state from executing Lee with one of the other approved methods, the electric chair or lethal injection. It is unclear how quickly the state could switch, however.<\/p>\n Alabama began using nitrogen gas to carry out some executions in 2024. The method involves strapping a respirator to a person\u2019s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas<\/a>, causing death from lack of oxygen. <\/p>\n Nitrogen has been used in eight executions in the United States \u2014 seven times in Alabama and once in Louisiana. Lee was scheduled to be the ninth.<\/p>\n During the previous Alabama nitrogen executions, the inmates shook, pulled at the restraints and exhibited labored breathing. During the state\u2019s last execution by nitrogen gas, 30 minutes elapsed between Anthony Boyd exhibiting signs of being impacted by the gas and state officials closing the curtain to the viewing room to signal the execution was complete.<\/p>\n The state has maintained that the method is constitutional and causes no more suffering than other execution methods. <\/p>\n Lee, who is currently housed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, was convicted of two counts of capital murder for killing Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson while robbing a pawnshop on Dec. 12, 1998. <\/p>\n Prosecutors said Lee entered Jimmy\u2019s Pawnshop with a sawed-off shotgun and shot Ellis, the owner, and Thompson, an employee.<\/p>\n A jury voted 7-5 to give Lee a sentence of life imprisonment. However a judge overrode that and sentenced him to death. <\/p>\n