Judge blocks Alabama's nitrogen gas execution method, rules it is unconstitutionally cruel

A federal judge permanently blocked Alabama from executing Jeffrey Lee using nitrogen gas, ruling it unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The judge allowed Alabama to use alternative methods like lethal injection or the electric chair but barred nitrogen gas, which opponents argue causes conscious suffocation. Alabama's attorney general is appealing the decision, which may reach the U.S. Supreme Court.