Alabama executed Jeffery Lee. A stay denial is not a merits ruling.

An execution carried out is the sentence completed. A stay denial is not a written opinion on judicial override or on switching methods. On Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, Alabama executed Jeffery Lee, 49, by lethal injection at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. He was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. Central. Lee was convicted in 2000 of capital murder and attempted murder for the Dec. 12, 1998 robbery at Jimmy’s Pawn Shop in Orrville. Jimmy Ellis, the owner, and Elaine Thompson, an employee, were killed. Another employee survived. The judgment that sent him to the chamber was already on the books. Carrying it out does not reopen the verdict.

A June nitrogen-gas execution date was halted after a federal judge ruled Alabama’s nitrogen method unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment. The attorney general reset the case to lethal injection. Gov. Kay Ivey set the new date and denied clemency. Lee’s jury had recommended life by a 7-5 vote. The trial judge overrode that recommendation and imposed death. Alabama abolished judicial override in 2017. The change is not retroactive. Those are facts about how the sentence was entered. They are not a new trial, and they do not unwrite the judgment.

On Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay without comment, about six hours before the execution. The defense argued the State was bound by a 2018 agreement to use nitrogen after Lee dropped a lethal-injection challenge. Losing that stay fight is not a merits ruling on override, on method-switching, or on those 2018 papers. The constitutional fights that failed do not vacate the sentence. As of Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, the sentence has been carried out.