Death row killer's final words before being executed for double murder
A double murderer who has spent more than a quarter of a century on death row uttered the words 'all is well' moments before he was executed.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said that 'justice was finally served' after Jeffery Lee was put to death via lethal injection on Thursday (17 September),
The state claimed that the killer, 49, had 'attempted to avoid his deserved death sentence' by launching a legal fight over the method that was set to be used, but the Supreme Court denied his eleventh hour plea to intervene.
Lee was convicted of capital murder and attempted murder in 2000 in wake of the fatal shootings of store owner Jimmy Ellis and employee Elaine Thompson, which took place two years prior.
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He burst into Jimmy’s Pawn Shop in the town of Orrville with a sawed-off shotgun before opening fire during a botched robbery. Another worker, Helen King, survived the ordeal by playing dead.
A jury voted 7-5 in favour of giving Lee a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, but Dallas County Circuit Judge Jack Meigs then overrode this ruling and sentenced him to death.
Delivering his verdict, the judge said that the double murderer has 'mercilessly' took the lives of Ellis and Thompson, while noting that he shot each of his victims 'with cold precision and premeditation'.
Judges are no longer allowed to supersede the juries sentencing decision in capital cases, as the state abolished the practice of judicial override in April 2017. However, this did not apply retroactively.
Lee's lawyers had hoped to hinge their bid to gain him clemency on this aspect of his sentencing, but the Supreme Court ultimately rejected the plea to step in before his scheduled execution on Thursday.
In a statement following his death, his attorneys said: "His death sentence rested solely on judicial override - an old law that Alabama has repealed.
"The State itself concluded this practice was wrong enough to abandon yet still put a man to death under it. That is a moral failure, not just a legal formality."
Lee was pronounced dead at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore at 6:22 pm after he received the lethal injection.
He declined the offer of a final meal, according to the state, although he did consume other food in the lead up to his death, as well as seeing visitors and taking phone calls.
Before taking his last breaths, Lee said: "All is well. I just want to say to my family, I love them. To my brothers on life row, I love them."
According to the Associated Press, the death row prisoner 'clenched his fists' while strapped to the gurney as the deadly cocktail of drugs took hold, before closing his eyes.
Why Lee's execution was delayed
Lee was originally supposed to be executed on 11 June this year, using the controversial method of nitrogen gas, which is also known as nitrogen hypoxia. He had initially agreed to this in 2018.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, this involves 'strapping a gas mask to the inmate's face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from a lack of oxygen'.
It adds: "Witnesses at all of the executions using nitrogen gas have noted that prisoners appear to be in pain and distress."
The method is only legal in five US states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.
But these plans for Lee were halted after Judge Emily Marks ruled that this controversial method violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.
She found that nitrogen hypoxia 'presents a substantial risk of serious harm' to the prisoner. Alabama then set a new execution date for Lee and decided to put him to death via lethal injection.
In a statement, the Governor of Alabama Kay Ivey said: "In June, after Mr. Lee attempted to avoid his deserved death sentence, I reaffirmed my commitment that justice would ultimately be served.
"Tonight, that promise was fulfilled for his victims, Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson, as well as for their loved ones who have long-awaited his sentence to be carried out."
She also refused to intervene to halt Lee's execution and said that his case 'underscores exactly why' the 2017 rule change in regards to judges does not impact those who have already been sentenced to death.
In 2024, killer Kenneth Smith became the first inmate to be put to death via nitrogen hypoxia by the state of Alabama.
Olivia Burke