June 10, 2026
Alabama Execution Method Banned; State’s Other Option, A Big Yellow Electric Chair
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RSS Feed A federal judge has ruled that nitrogen gas executions are unconstitutional, now just one day before Alabama is set to execute Jeffrey Lee by that very method. Lee was convicted for the 1998 double murder of two pawn shop employees. Alabama is now barred from using nitrogen gas, so it’s unclear how or if they plan to move forward with the state’s two other options: electrocution or lethal injection.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hither folks. It is Wednesday, June tenth, and an execution is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, June eleven. But a judge just said that the method that they want to use to kill this guy is now unconstitutional and suggested, why don't you try shooting him instead? And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Everything I just said, Robes is not hyperbole. It is not taking liberty with the story. That is exactly what is happening in Alabama right now for an execution plan for tomorrow that we as we sit here, don't know if it's going to happen.
00:00:40
Speaker 2: Yes, this whole thing was set into motion because Jeffrey Lee, who is a convicted double murderer, one of his appeals to try and stop his execution was to say that nitrogen gas, the method that the state of Alabama has used since twenty twenty four, is unconstitutional because it's cruel and unusual. So you had a federal appeals court say, you know what, we also think it's intolerable, and so they ruled that they did think it was cruel, but they stopped short of barring this state of Alabama from using it and they stopped short of staying his execution. However, it was yesterday that a federal judge took that next step and said, yep, I am going to declare it unconstitutional and I am going to ban the state of Alabama from using it going forward.
00:01:27
Speaker 1: Say that again, Robes, their preferred method of execution.
00:01:33
Speaker 3: Is banned, barred, cruel, and unusual.
00:01:36
Speaker 1: Uh hello, Supreme Court, you guys busy. I'm gonna need to talk to you. They're going to have to settle this. Absolutely, Robes nitrogen gas has been deemed an unconstitutional method of execution, and Alabama has been using it for the past what year and a half exclusively.
00:01:53
Speaker 2: And if you look in and read the witness accounts of what folks saw when they watch inmates die using this method, it's hard to even read, just it will make you physically uncomfortable to read what and look, many people say these men are vicious, horrific monsters who deserve to die and don't get a pain free death guaranteed. However, having read through and looked at many observations and having seen one myself, you see these executions. You can tell the level of pain someone is going through by their physical reactions to dying, And when you read through how these men have reacted physically to dying, it's pretty pretty obvious that they are suffering.
00:02:39
Speaker 1: Oh but again, how do any of us know what level of suffering is? Okay, it's death. Death is not supposed to be comfortable, not supposed to be pleasant. But that is the debate robes. Where is the line of how much we understand how much somebody is going through and who says this level of discomfort is too much, it's cruel and unusual. Yes, Supreme Court is gonna have to talk about it.
00:03:02
Speaker 2: They are gonna have to And because what I read, a lot of what was discussed was the amount of time the inmates suffered, So like they suffered for four minutes, So I don't know if they say you can suffer for thirty seconds, sixty seconds, two minutes is too long. A lot of folks were pointing to the fact that it looked like there was suffering that was continuous for a minute upon minute upon It's like up to four minutes of pain and suffering.
00:03:28
Speaker 1: But again, oh, none of them have been able to come back and tell us what that experience was like, So you cannot use nitrogen gas in Alabama. There is an execution scheduled for tomorrow robes of Jeffrey Lee. It has not been halted, but they're told they can't use nitrogen gas. So Jeffrey Lee previously said that his preferred method would be the firing squad. That would be great robes and they could go forward tomorrow. One little prop with that.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: The judge actually discussed.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: That said option that Jeffrey Lee asked for, And so here was what that judge said. Were Alabama to adopt firing squad as a method of execution, that method would likely be challenged as well. Indeed, there is likely no method, no matter how humane, that would be immune to constitutional challenge. But the Constitution does not guarantee a painless death, and human life cannot be purposefully extinguished without some risk of pain. The Court, the condemned, and the state must all confront that sobering reality. He goes on to say this, the state can readily obtain rifles, ammunition, and other materials necessary to carry out a firing squad execution. Additionally, the state would be able to modify space at Holman to carry out executions by firing squad. The state is also able to source and train volunteers willing to carry out such an execution, So it sounds like he is clearing the way if the State of Alabama so chooses to arrange for a firing squad death for Jeffrey Lee.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: One problem with that the state of Alabama does not allow executions by firing squad. Their methods are nitrogen gas, lethal injection, and the electric chair. Those are the options. So Rhodes, the state is now trying to figure out what to do. I don't know what they are allowed to do there in Alabama when it comes to that. Can they just go to one of their other methods? Is it too late now to get the right drugs in place, get the right doctor in place, to get all this done? Is it too late to get the dust off the electric chair that hasn't been used? And who knows how long rodes? What do we do? It doesn't seem like to me this can go far.
00:06:00
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like it could either, because yes, there are a lot of preparations that take place before an execution to make sure sure everything is set and ready to go, and a lethal injection. I don't know when the last time they've done that. But yeah, you have to have the correct medications in order ready to go. You have to have the correct medical personnel knowing how.
00:06:21
Speaker 3: To do things the way.
00:06:24
Speaker 2: Each state has their own protocols about how they hook someone up and how it's all done, and so, yes, all of that has to be in place, ready to go. Could they have it ready in a matter of hours versus the days and weeks of planning that it takes to set up an execution date and make sure everything is in order, in place and ready to go.
00:06:44
Speaker 3: Seems hard to imagine that they would.
00:06:47
Speaker 1: Nitrogen gas again has been used. There's one other state that you used that I can slip in my mind right now, but nitrogen gas has been the preferred method Louisiana. Louisiana is the only other one. And when you hear I can't roapes. Every single method I hear of execution sounds horrific to me, every single one of them, including the firing squad where the idea they actually put a bull's eye on your chest and give three guys a rifle and say aim there. That sounds pretty horrific to me. Wow, Strapping somebody to the gurney and putting a couple of needles in their arm, having a backup needle in their arm ropes sounds pretty horrific to me. But the nitrogen gas, the idea they put a mask over your face and they feed you with this nitrogen gas, so you're not getting oxygen. You're essentially suffocating while breathing something in It.
00:07:37
Speaker 2: Sounds like someone puts a plastic bag over your head. When you hear about what the physical reaction was of those inmates, it reminded me. I know this sounds awful, but we've seen enough horror movies where you see those kinds of deaths imitated in art in a movie. It feels like that's what it looked like, or that's what it felt like.
00:07:56
Speaker 3: And I do have the dates.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: The last successful lethal injection in Alabama was July twenty first of twenty twenty three, so almost three years ago since Alabama has executed somebody using lethal injection. And in terms of electrocution, the last electrocution in a state of Alabama was May tenth, two thousand and two, so twenty four years ago. They electrocuted a woman actually Linda lyon Block known Don and they had the name for their electrotare as Yellow Mama. So they have Yellow Mama there at the Homeman Correctional Facility in Alabama, ready to go, but she hasn't been fired up in almost a quarter of a century.
00:08:37
Speaker 1: I would have to add, I mean, I would have to say, I mean, I had to wonder, rohse it is that thing working? Do they do regular tests?
00:08:46
Speaker 3: You mentioned dusting it off? Literally? I feel like they would have to do that.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: I don't think they could have that already in twenty four to forty eight hours to go. That's just my guess. Lethal injection. Are those drugs sitting around? Is the right doctor available to do all of that? My other question there is robes. Are they allowed to execute him by a method that is not his preferred method? Yes?
00:09:09
Speaker 2: I believe they You don't get to choose to I think you initially get to choose, or you get to if there are options, they ask you what your preference is. But I don't legally, I do not think you get to decide. It's your right to decide.
00:09:24
Speaker 1: When you put it that way, I have a right to decide how I'm gonna die. That doesn't sound like it would be the case. So that said, this is then, right, Robes only a matter of deciding or if they can get everything ready in time. Is that yes, essentially all Yes, I.
00:09:40
Speaker 3: Would imagine that's what they have to do next. Yes, why would they call the chair yellow Mama?
00:09:49
Speaker 1: Good Christ? This is where we are. That's disturbing they in this case. Stay with us. We will give you a reminder though, of Jeffrey Lee's crime, and it will remind you and let you know why while people are arguing that he should not be executed, nobody's arguing that he's innocent.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: Stay here, Welcome back to everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We're talking about the dilemma the State of Alabama has right now. You've got a federal judge saying that your method, your preferred method of execution that you've been employing for the past year and a half is unconstitutional because it is cruel and unusual. And so now the state of Alabama, with a scheduled execution for tomorrow, Thursday, June eleventh, now has to figure out what to do because do they have what they need to be able to proceed with his execution with a lethal injection or an electrocution. Those are the only other two legal methods of execution in the state of Alabama, and they haven't used them for several years and in one case decades.
00:11:14
Speaker 1: The chair is not an option from our understanding. Year it hasn't been used now roads in so long that they would have to build another chair and have a whole new thing. It's just out of commission. It's old. That is not an option.
00:11:30
Speaker 2: It's in a storage room apparently at Holman correction Facility.
00:11:34
Speaker 3: It is actually yellow. We did look it up.
00:11:38
Speaker 2: It was painted with the same paint that you see along a highway with the yellow dotted lines, and so that's why they called it yellow Mama. But they literally used the same paint from the highway patrol, from the highway department that's across the street from the correctional facility used it to paint the chair. And it's disturbingly bright and sunny. Given the atrocities that it's certainly will.
00:12:03
Speaker 1: The appearance of the chair, it should be deemed cruel and unusual. Right, it looks bananas, literally, but yes, it looks. It looks joyful. It looks like this.
00:12:14
Speaker 3: It looks like a fun chair.
00:12:15
Speaker 1: There's the thing ropes we go a lot. It looks like one of those oversized chairs you see outside of a restaurant.
00:12:20
Speaker 3: When you go to aduct chair, you're.
00:12:22
Speaker 1: Supposed to sit there and take a picture.
00:12:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, it literally looks like you should be on a beach sipping a margarita.
00:12:27
Speaker 1: If you saw the chair, you would want to sit down and have a photo taken.
00:12:31
Speaker 2: Okay, that that honestly, that is that feels very cruel, like you say, because it belies every feeling that those inmates must have been experiencing as they were walking up to it.
00:12:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, you feel like you're at the Kunk Shack and turks sitting in this.
00:12:43
Speaker 3: Literally, Oh my goodness, that is so creepy. I don't know that is so creepy.
00:12:50
Speaker 1: Anyway, Thank goodness that one's not being used anymore. But lethal injection rope? Do they have those drugs on standby? Are they available? We do not know what's going to happen, but right now the state says they are reviewing. They did not have an immediate response to what they're going to do and how they're going to move forward. But to your point, where if the lethal injection drugs are available, yes, you're right, they don't have to listen to him and say, ah, well he wants to why would you say electric the firing squad. But did he do that on purpose knowing that the outlet state doesn't allow it. Possibly he knows they don't allow.
00:13:23
Speaker 3: Obviously he's doing what he can.
00:13:25
Speaker 2: We've seen, I mean maybe only one inmate on death row that we've seen in the past several years has not even tried to fight their execution. Everyone wants to stay alive. Everyone wants one more day, even if it's one more week. Yes, if he can ask for something that isn't allowed, maybe he can kick the can down further. And yes, because once you go past your execution date, when a warrant death warrant has been signed, a lot of times you end up getting another year. Just the way it works, the way they sign these things, it sometimes punts your case for another year, so you get to live a few more months, maybe even a year. So yes, inmates will do or try anything to get some more time.
00:14:07
Speaker 1: Well, it's his lawyer's new firing squad was not an option. So what's your backup guillotine? No, we don't have that either. What's after that? You know what? Hanging? Let's go with hanging. No, like you just keep naming.
00:14:18
Speaker 2: Trying different different ways that you know they will not allow.
00:14:22
Speaker 1: And so yes, but this wrote this is yes. We're talking about one guy in one state, one case Robes. This is enormous now because other states were looking at this and going wow, okay, nitrogen gas is something that we could look at and work. Talk about the lethal injection drugs. There are some states who had difficulty getting.
00:14:40
Speaker 2: Those and Alabama was among those states, and that's why they moved to nitrogen gas.
00:14:44
Speaker 1: And now they're being told that's unconstitutional. Maybe they do need to bring out old Yellow or Yellow Mama whatever it's called.
00:14:51
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yellow Mama.
00:14:52
Speaker 1: But everything is going to be deemed unconstitutional. Yeah.
00:14:55
Speaker 2: And look, we mentioned before the break that we wanted to go over just his crime. Just mind everyone why this man is facing execution tomorrow. So we're talking about a man, Jeffrey Lee, who robbed a pawnshop. But when he walked into the pawn shop, he had a sought off shotgun. He shot and killed Jimmy Ellis and then just open fire and Elaine Thompson, who was also working there, was immediately shot and killed. And another woman who was at the store was shot, but she played dead. He runs out of the shop because he actually couldn't get any money out he was trying to rob them, couldn't figure it out, So he does all of this, leaves all this carnage behind, and throws his gun down and runs out. This young woman who was able to survive called nine one one and was able to crawl to the door and lock it. He of course comes back to get his gun to finish the job. Who knows, but he can't get back in, and he's quickly apprehended by police because of the quick thinking of that young woman who was able to survive. But he took a way two young lives for no good reason. Now of note, also in this case, he was convicted swiftly, but a jury voted seven to five that he should receive life in prison rather than the death penalty. He was twenty one at the time of the murders, and so that has also been one of the arguments that advocates for him say he shouldn't actually be executed because a jury didn't even recommend that he should be. A judge overturned that and decided to give him the death penalty.
00:16:30
Speaker 1: Too. That's where we are. Yet nobody's was arguing about guilt or innocence on this one rope. This has been we have had now robes several and it might even seem like the majority of the past several that we've had there have been real legal issues that have come up and we should go back into account. But the last several, yeah, there has been some. We've seen clemency in some they have been stopped in others. Another guy got an extra year. This feels like something is happening here as of late with the death penalty in this country.
00:17:07
Speaker 3: Yes, there it is complicated.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Look, we even saw a period a few years ago where there was a hiatus because they were trying to figure out how not to be unconstitutionally cruel to these inmates as to how they die.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: And I don't think we've figured it out yet.
00:17:24
Speaker 2: And certainly this case in Alabama is exhibit A, or at least the latest exhibit in a long string of them. So we shall keep our eye on this developing situation. Let you know what Alabama decides and what may or may not happen tomorrow.
00:17:38
Speaker 3: To Jeffrey Lee. With that, everyone, thank you for listening. To us. I'm Amy Roebuck alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hither folks. It is Wednesday, June tenth, and an execution is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, June eleven. But a judge just said that the method that they want to use to kill this guy is now unconstitutional and suggested, why don't you try shooting him instead? And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Everything I just said, Robes is not hyperbole. It is not taking liberty with the story. That is exactly what is happening in Alabama right now for an execution plan for tomorrow that we as we sit here, don't know if it's going to happen.
00:00:40
Speaker 2: Yes, this whole thing was set into motion because Jeffrey Lee, who is a convicted double murderer, one of his appeals to try and stop his execution was to say that nitrogen gas, the method that the state of Alabama has used since twenty twenty four, is unconstitutional because it's cruel and unusual. So you had a federal appeals court say, you know what, we also think it's intolerable, and so they ruled that they did think it was cruel, but they stopped short of barring this state of Alabama from using it and they stopped short of staying his execution. However, it was yesterday that a federal judge took that next step and said, yep, I am going to declare it unconstitutional and I am going to ban the state of Alabama from using it going forward.
00:01:27
Speaker 1: Say that again, Robes, their preferred method of execution.
00:01:33
Speaker 3: Is banned, barred, cruel, and unusual.
00:01:36
Speaker 1: Uh hello, Supreme Court, you guys busy. I'm gonna need to talk to you. They're going to have to settle this. Absolutely, Robes nitrogen gas has been deemed an unconstitutional method of execution, and Alabama has been using it for the past what year and a half exclusively.
00:01:53
Speaker 2: And if you look in and read the witness accounts of what folks saw when they watch inmates die using this method, it's hard to even read, just it will make you physically uncomfortable to read what and look, many people say these men are vicious, horrific monsters who deserve to die and don't get a pain free death guaranteed. However, having read through and looked at many observations and having seen one myself, you see these executions. You can tell the level of pain someone is going through by their physical reactions to dying, And when you read through how these men have reacted physically to dying, it's pretty pretty obvious that they are suffering.
00:02:39
Speaker 1: Oh but again, how do any of us know what level of suffering is? Okay, it's death. Death is not supposed to be comfortable, not supposed to be pleasant. But that is the debate robes. Where is the line of how much we understand how much somebody is going through and who says this level of discomfort is too much, it's cruel and unusual. Yes, Supreme Court is gonna have to talk about it.
00:03:02
Speaker 2: They are gonna have to And because what I read, a lot of what was discussed was the amount of time the inmates suffered, So like they suffered for four minutes, So I don't know if they say you can suffer for thirty seconds, sixty seconds, two minutes is too long. A lot of folks were pointing to the fact that it looked like there was suffering that was continuous for a minute upon minute upon It's like up to four minutes of pain and suffering.
00:03:28
Speaker 1: But again, oh, none of them have been able to come back and tell us what that experience was like, So you cannot use nitrogen gas in Alabama. There is an execution scheduled for tomorrow robes of Jeffrey Lee. It has not been halted, but they're told they can't use nitrogen gas. So Jeffrey Lee previously said that his preferred method would be the firing squad. That would be great robes and they could go forward tomorrow. One little prop with that.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: The judge actually discussed.
00:04:07
Speaker 2: That said option that Jeffrey Lee asked for, And so here was what that judge said. Were Alabama to adopt firing squad as a method of execution, that method would likely be challenged as well. Indeed, there is likely no method, no matter how humane, that would be immune to constitutional challenge. But the Constitution does not guarantee a painless death, and human life cannot be purposefully extinguished without some risk of pain. The Court, the condemned, and the state must all confront that sobering reality. He goes on to say this, the state can readily obtain rifles, ammunition, and other materials necessary to carry out a firing squad execution. Additionally, the state would be able to modify space at Holman to carry out executions by firing squad. The state is also able to source and train volunteers willing to carry out such an execution, So it sounds like he is clearing the way if the State of Alabama so chooses to arrange for a firing squad death for Jeffrey Lee.
00:05:18
Speaker 1: One problem with that the state of Alabama does not allow executions by firing squad. Their methods are nitrogen gas, lethal injection, and the electric chair. Those are the options. So Rhodes, the state is now trying to figure out what to do. I don't know what they are allowed to do there in Alabama when it comes to that. Can they just go to one of their other methods? Is it too late now to get the right drugs in place, get the right doctor in place, to get all this done? Is it too late to get the dust off the electric chair that hasn't been used? And who knows how long rodes? What do we do? It doesn't seem like to me this can go far.
00:06:00
Speaker 2: It doesn't seem like it could either, because yes, there are a lot of preparations that take place before an execution to make sure sure everything is set and ready to go, and a lethal injection. I don't know when the last time they've done that. But yeah, you have to have the correct medications in order ready to go. You have to have the correct medical personnel knowing how.
00:06:21
Speaker 3: To do things the way.
00:06:24
Speaker 2: Each state has their own protocols about how they hook someone up and how it's all done, and so, yes, all of that has to be in place, ready to go. Could they have it ready in a matter of hours versus the days and weeks of planning that it takes to set up an execution date and make sure everything is in order, in place and ready to go.
00:06:44
Speaker 3: Seems hard to imagine that they would.
00:06:47
Speaker 1: Nitrogen gas again has been used. There's one other state that you used that I can slip in my mind right now, but nitrogen gas has been the preferred method Louisiana. Louisiana is the only other one. And when you hear I can't roapes. Every single method I hear of execution sounds horrific to me, every single one of them, including the firing squad where the idea they actually put a bull's eye on your chest and give three guys a rifle and say aim there. That sounds pretty horrific to me. Wow, Strapping somebody to the gurney and putting a couple of needles in their arm, having a backup needle in their arm ropes sounds pretty horrific to me. But the nitrogen gas, the idea they put a mask over your face and they feed you with this nitrogen gas, so you're not getting oxygen. You're essentially suffocating while breathing something in It.
00:07:37
Speaker 2: Sounds like someone puts a plastic bag over your head. When you hear about what the physical reaction was of those inmates, it reminded me. I know this sounds awful, but we've seen enough horror movies where you see those kinds of deaths imitated in art in a movie. It feels like that's what it looked like, or that's what it felt like.
00:07:56
Speaker 3: And I do have the dates.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: The last successful lethal injection in Alabama was July twenty first of twenty twenty three, so almost three years ago since Alabama has executed somebody using lethal injection. And in terms of electrocution, the last electrocution in a state of Alabama was May tenth, two thousand and two, so twenty four years ago. They electrocuted a woman actually Linda lyon Block known Don and they had the name for their electrotare as Yellow Mama. So they have Yellow Mama there at the Homeman Correctional Facility in Alabama, ready to go, but she hasn't been fired up in almost a quarter of a century.
00:08:37
Speaker 1: I would have to add, I mean, I would have to say, I mean, I had to wonder, rohse it is that thing working? Do they do regular tests?
00:08:46
Speaker 3: You mentioned dusting it off? Literally? I feel like they would have to do that.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: I don't think they could have that already in twenty four to forty eight hours to go. That's just my guess. Lethal injection. Are those drugs sitting around? Is the right doctor available to do all of that? My other question there is robes. Are they allowed to execute him by a method that is not his preferred method? Yes?
00:09:09
Speaker 2: I believe they You don't get to choose to I think you initially get to choose, or you get to if there are options, they ask you what your preference is. But I don't legally, I do not think you get to decide. It's your right to decide.
00:09:24
Speaker 1: When you put it that way, I have a right to decide how I'm gonna die. That doesn't sound like it would be the case. So that said, this is then, right, Robes only a matter of deciding or if they can get everything ready in time. Is that yes, essentially all Yes, I.
00:09:40
Speaker 3: Would imagine that's what they have to do next. Yes, why would they call the chair yellow Mama?
00:09:49
Speaker 1: Good Christ? This is where we are. That's disturbing they in this case. Stay with us. We will give you a reminder though, of Jeffrey Lee's crime, and it will remind you and let you know why while people are arguing that he should not be executed, nobody's arguing that he's innocent.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: Stay here, Welcome back to everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We're talking about the dilemma the State of Alabama has right now. You've got a federal judge saying that your method, your preferred method of execution that you've been employing for the past year and a half is unconstitutional because it is cruel and unusual. And so now the state of Alabama, with a scheduled execution for tomorrow, Thursday, June eleventh, now has to figure out what to do because do they have what they need to be able to proceed with his execution with a lethal injection or an electrocution. Those are the only other two legal methods of execution in the state of Alabama, and they haven't used them for several years and in one case decades.
00:11:14
Speaker 1: The chair is not an option from our understanding. Year it hasn't been used now roads in so long that they would have to build another chair and have a whole new thing. It's just out of commission. It's old. That is not an option.
00:11:30
Speaker 2: It's in a storage room apparently at Holman correction Facility.
00:11:34
Speaker 3: It is actually yellow. We did look it up.
00:11:38
Speaker 2: It was painted with the same paint that you see along a highway with the yellow dotted lines, and so that's why they called it yellow Mama. But they literally used the same paint from the highway patrol, from the highway department that's across the street from the correctional facility used it to paint the chair. And it's disturbingly bright and sunny. Given the atrocities that it's certainly will.
00:12:03
Speaker 1: The appearance of the chair, it should be deemed cruel and unusual. Right, it looks bananas, literally, but yes, it looks. It looks joyful. It looks like this.
00:12:14
Speaker 3: It looks like a fun chair.
00:12:15
Speaker 1: There's the thing ropes we go a lot. It looks like one of those oversized chairs you see outside of a restaurant.
00:12:20
Speaker 3: When you go to aduct chair, you're.
00:12:22
Speaker 1: Supposed to sit there and take a picture.
00:12:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, it literally looks like you should be on a beach sipping a margarita.
00:12:27
Speaker 1: If you saw the chair, you would want to sit down and have a photo taken.
00:12:31
Speaker 2: Okay, that that honestly, that is that feels very cruel, like you say, because it belies every feeling that those inmates must have been experiencing as they were walking up to it.
00:12:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, you feel like you're at the Kunk Shack and turks sitting in this.
00:12:43
Speaker 3: Literally, Oh my goodness, that is so creepy. I don't know that is so creepy.
00:12:50
Speaker 1: Anyway, Thank goodness that one's not being used anymore. But lethal injection rope? Do they have those drugs on standby? Are they available? We do not know what's going to happen, but right now the state says they are reviewing. They did not have an immediate response to what they're going to do and how they're going to move forward. But to your point, where if the lethal injection drugs are available, yes, you're right, they don't have to listen to him and say, ah, well he wants to why would you say electric the firing squad. But did he do that on purpose knowing that the outlet state doesn't allow it. Possibly he knows they don't allow.
00:13:23
Speaker 3: Obviously he's doing what he can.
00:13:25
Speaker 2: We've seen, I mean maybe only one inmate on death row that we've seen in the past several years has not even tried to fight their execution. Everyone wants to stay alive. Everyone wants one more day, even if it's one more week. Yes, if he can ask for something that isn't allowed, maybe he can kick the can down further. And yes, because once you go past your execution date, when a warrant death warrant has been signed, a lot of times you end up getting another year. Just the way it works, the way they sign these things, it sometimes punts your case for another year, so you get to live a few more months, maybe even a year. So yes, inmates will do or try anything to get some more time.
00:14:07
Speaker 1: Well, it's his lawyer's new firing squad was not an option. So what's your backup guillotine? No, we don't have that either. What's after that? You know what? Hanging? Let's go with hanging. No, like you just keep naming.
00:14:18
Speaker 2: Trying different different ways that you know they will not allow.
00:14:22
Speaker 1: And so yes, but this wrote this is yes. We're talking about one guy in one state, one case Robes. This is enormous now because other states were looking at this and going wow, okay, nitrogen gas is something that we could look at and work. Talk about the lethal injection drugs. There are some states who had difficulty getting.
00:14:40
Speaker 2: Those and Alabama was among those states, and that's why they moved to nitrogen gas.
00:14:44
Speaker 1: And now they're being told that's unconstitutional. Maybe they do need to bring out old Yellow or Yellow Mama whatever it's called.
00:14:51
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yellow Mama.
00:14:52
Speaker 1: But everything is going to be deemed unconstitutional. Yeah.
00:14:55
Speaker 2: And look, we mentioned before the break that we wanted to go over just his crime. Just mind everyone why this man is facing execution tomorrow. So we're talking about a man, Jeffrey Lee, who robbed a pawnshop. But when he walked into the pawn shop, he had a sought off shotgun. He shot and killed Jimmy Ellis and then just open fire and Elaine Thompson, who was also working there, was immediately shot and killed. And another woman who was at the store was shot, but she played dead. He runs out of the shop because he actually couldn't get any money out he was trying to rob them, couldn't figure it out, So he does all of this, leaves all this carnage behind, and throws his gun down and runs out. This young woman who was able to survive called nine one one and was able to crawl to the door and lock it. He of course comes back to get his gun to finish the job. Who knows, but he can't get back in, and he's quickly apprehended by police because of the quick thinking of that young woman who was able to survive. But he took a way two young lives for no good reason. Now of note, also in this case, he was convicted swiftly, but a jury voted seven to five that he should receive life in prison rather than the death penalty. He was twenty one at the time of the murders, and so that has also been one of the arguments that advocates for him say he shouldn't actually be executed because a jury didn't even recommend that he should be. A judge overturned that and decided to give him the death penalty.
00:16:30
Speaker 1: Too. That's where we are. Yet nobody's was arguing about guilt or innocence on this one rope. This has been we have had now robes several and it might even seem like the majority of the past several that we've had there have been real legal issues that have come up and we should go back into account. But the last several, yeah, there has been some. We've seen clemency in some they have been stopped in others. Another guy got an extra year. This feels like something is happening here as of late with the death penalty in this country.
00:17:07
Speaker 3: Yes, there it is complicated.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Look, we even saw a period a few years ago where there was a hiatus because they were trying to figure out how not to be unconstitutionally cruel to these inmates as to how they die.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: And I don't think we've figured it out yet.
00:17:24
Speaker 2: And certainly this case in Alabama is exhibit A, or at least the latest exhibit in a long string of them. So we shall keep our eye on this developing situation. Let you know what Alabama decides and what may or may not happen tomorrow.
00:17:38
Speaker 3: To Jeffrey Lee. With that, everyone, thank you for listening. To us. I'm Amy Roebuck alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.