MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has scheduled the execution of Jeffrey Lee, a death row prisoner whose sentence was imposed after a judge overrode a jury’s recommendation of life in prison, a practice Alabama abolished in 2017, according to a press release from Lee’s legal team.
According to court records cited by the Alabama Reflector, Lee shot and killed Ellis and Thompson during a 1998 pawn shop robbery and also shot Helen King, who survived her injuries. Lee was later convicted on two counts of capital murder and one count of attempted murder.
At the time of Lee’s sentencing, Alabama law allowed judges to impose death sentences even when juries recommended life imprisonment. Alabama became the last state in the nation to eliminate the practice when Ivey signed legislation banning judicial override in 2017, according to an article from the Alabama news site AL.com.
Despite the jury’s recommendation of life without parole, the trial judge sentenced Lee to death. The sentence was later upheld by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in 2009, according to the same article.
Following the 2017 law change, Lee sought additional review of his sentence, arguing that Alabama had since abolished the sentencing practice used in his case. His petition for certiorari was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018, according to AL.com.
Lee is scheduled to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia during a 30-hour window beginning June 11 and ending June 12, according to the AL.com article. Although Alabama later ended judicial override in such cases, the change was not made retroactive, allowing death sentences issued under the former law to remain in effect.
Leslie Smith, a member of Lee’s legal team, said, “Alabama fixed the law. Jeffrey Lee is still paying the price for when it was broken.”
In a press release, Lee’s attorneys also argued that Lee suffers from a traumatic brain injury, which they said “…can significantly affect how a person thinks, reacts, controls impulses, and makes decisions.” His legal team added that, combined with Lee’s history of trauma and instability, the injury “can have a profound impact on behavior.”
If carried out, Lee’s execution would be Alabama’s seventh using nitrogen hypoxia since the state became the first in the country to use the method in 2024, according to AL.com. Lee would also become the first person executed in Alabama this year after Ivey granted clemency in two previous death penalty cases, including that of Charles Lee “Sonny” Burton.
As of now, Ivey has not indicated plans to grant clemency in Lee’s case. However, she previously stated, “I retain my authority under the Constitution of the State of Alabama to grant a reprieve or commutation, if necessary, at any time before the execution is carried out,” according to AL.com.
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