Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has formally scheduled the execution of Jeffery Lee, a death row inmate convicted for a 1998 double murder during a pawnshop robbery in Orrville.
The execution is set to take place during a 30-hour window beginning at midnight on June 11, 2026, and ending early June 12.
Lee was convicted in the December 12, 1998 killings of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson at Jimmy’s Pawnshop in Dallas County. Prosecutors said Lee shot and killed both victims during the robbery.
A third person inside the store, Helen King, was also shot but survived. Lee was later convicted of attempted murder in connection with that shooting.
At Lee’s 2000 trial, the jury voted 7-5 to recommend a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The trial judge overrode that recommendation and imposed a death sentence.
At the time, Alabama law permitted what was known as judicial override, allowing a judge to sentence a defendant to death even when a jury recommended life. The practice was abolished by lawmakers in 2017, but the change was not made retroactive, meaning inmates sentenced under the previous law remain on death row, like Lee.
Alabama plans to carry out Lee’s execution using nitrogen hypoxia, a method that involves replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death by oxygen deprivation. State officials have turned to nitrogen as an alternative to lethal injection amid ongoing issues with drug availability and past procedural difficulties.
The method has drawn national attention and sparked debate among legal scholars and advocacy groups, some of whom argue it has not been sufficiently studied and could violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Lee’s attorneys have filed a federal challenge to the use of nitrogen hypoxia, contending that the method is unconstitutional. A bench trial in that case is scheduled later this month. Despite the pending litigation, the Alabama Supreme Court authorized the execution date earlier this week.
