Legal Library
The record, as the courts wrote it.
Every major federal decision on nitrogen hypoxia — from the first denial of Kenneth Smith's injunction in January 2024 to the first permanent injunction against an execution method in American history in June 2026.
January 10, 2024
Allowed execution
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
Smith v. Hamm
No. 2:23-cv-656 (M.D. Ala. Jan. 10, 2024) · Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr.
Denied Kenneth Smith's preliminary injunction. Held that Smith had not shown a substantial risk of severe pain under Glossip and Bucklew and that his proposed alternatives — a modified nitrogen protocol and firing squad — were not 'feasible and readily implemented.' Called the evidence of suffering 'speculation, at best scientific controversy.'
“Smith is not guaranteed a painless death. On this record, Smith has not shown, and the court cannot conclude, the Protocol inflicts both cruel and unusual punishment rendering it constitutionally infirm under the prevailing legal framework.”
January 24, 2024
Dissent
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Smith v. Hamm (11th Cir.)
11th Cir., Jan. 24, 2024 · Circuit Judge Jill A. Pryor (dissenting)
A 2-1 panel affirmed the denial of Smith's injunction. Judge Pryor's dissent became a moral and constitutional reckoning — a warning about experimenting on a human being with no world data, no medical consensus, and a mask design borrowed from industrial safety.
“He will die. The cost, I fear, will be Mr. Smith's human dignity, and ours.”
November 2022
Blocked execution
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
Miller v. Hamm — Settlement
M.D. Ala., Nov. 2022 · Stipulated settlement
After Alabama's botched September 22, 2022 attempt to execute Alan Miller by lethal injection — 90 minutes strapped in a 'crucifixion' position while officials punctured his arms, hands and feet — the state settled Miller's § 1983 suit by agreeing that any future execution of Miller would be by nitrogen hypoxia only. The settlement locked Miller onto a method that did not yet have a written protocol.
September 2024
Allowed execution
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
Miller v. Hamm (2024)
M.D. Ala., Sept. 2024 · Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr.
Denied Miller's Eighth Amendment challenge to the nitrogen protocol despite the observable record of Smith's execution eight months earlier. The court characterized Smith's convulsions as consistent with the state's expected physiological response and declined to enjoin the second use of the method.
November 2024
Allowed execution
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
Grayson v. Hamm
M.D. Ala., Nov. 2024 · Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr.
Rejected Carey Grayson's June 2024 § 1983 challenge, which cited the Smith and Miller executions as proof of substantial risk. Judge Huffaker again called the eyewitness record 'speculation.' Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm publicly dismissed visible distress in nitrogen executions as 'all show.'
February 2025
Allowed execution
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
Frazier v. Hamm
M.D. Ala., Feb. 2025 · Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr.
Rejected both Demetrius Frazier's Eighth Amendment challenge and his separate claim that Alabama's 2011 interstate custody transfer from Michigan — an abolition state — was itself unlawful. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer declined to invoke the transfer agreement to bring Frazier home.
March 2025
Blocked execution
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Louisiana
Hoffman v. Westcott
M.D. La. 2025 · Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick
The first substantial federal judicial safeguard against nitrogen hypoxia. Ruled in favor of Jessie Hoffman on both Eighth Amendment and RLUIPA religious-exercise grounds — recognizing that suffocation by inert gas cannot coexist with a Buddhist practice built around breath. The Fifth Circuit reversed; the Supreme Court declined to intervene 5-4.
March 2025
Allowed execution
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Hoffman v. Westcott (5th Cir.)
5th Cir., March 2025 · Per curiam
Vacated Judge Dick's injunction, holding that Hoffman had not made the required Glossip showing and that his RLUIPA claim was outweighed by the state's interest in carrying out the sentence. Cleared the way for Louisiana's first nitrogen execution.
March 2025
Dissent
Supreme Court of the United States
Hoffman v. Westcott (SCOTUS)
U.S. Supreme Court, March 2025 · Sotomayor, Kagan, Jackson & Gorsuch — noted dissent
The Court declined to intervene 5-4. Four Justices — including Justice Gorsuch — noted they would have granted a stay. First time a Justice from the Court's conservative wing publicly broke on a nitrogen case.
June 2025
Allowed execution
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
Hunt v. Hamm
M.D. Ala., June 2025 · Chief Judge Emily C. Marks
Denied Gregory Hunt's pro se filings challenging his execution warrant and the nitrogen protocol. Hunt, 35 years on the row, told the AP he had 'no pity party' and represented himself in his final motions after failing to secure counsel.
September 2025
Allowed execution
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
West v. Hamm
M.D. Ala., Sept. 2025 · Chief Judge Emily C. Marks
Denied Geoffrey West's challenge despite an unusual mitigation posture: Will Berry, son of West's victim, publicly forgave him, joined death-penalty opponents at the Alabama Capitol, and personally delivered a clemency petition to Governor Kay Ivey. The state proceeded.
October 23, 2025
Dissent
Supreme Court of the United States (denial of stay)
Boyd v. Hamm
U.S. Supreme Court, Oct. 23, 2025 · Justice Sonia Sotomayor (dissenting, joined by Justice Jackson)
Justice Sotomayor's dissent from denial of a stay for Anthony Boyd catalogued the record of prolonged, observable suffering in every previous nitrogen execution and warned the Court against ratifying the method by silence.
May 28, 2026
Allowed execution
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
Lee v. Hamm — the Bench Trial
M.D. Ala., May 28, 2026 · Chief Judge Emily C. Marks
The first full trial in the country on the constitutionality of nitrogen hypoxia. After days of expert testimony, autopsies and demonstrations, Judge Marks found — as a matter of fact — that Alabama's protocol inflicts one to three minutes of severe, conscious air hunger. She then held that this level of suffering did not violate the Eighth Amendment and permitted the execution. The candor of that finding became the instrument of its undoing.
June 8, 2026
Blocked execution
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Lee v. Hamm — the Reversal
11th Cir., June 8, 2026 (per curiam) · Judges Jordan, Luck & Kidd (per curiam)
Accepted every one of Judge Marks's factual findings and reached the opposite legal conclusion — the first federal appellate ruling that execution by nitrogen most likely violates the Eighth Amendment. 'Presents a substantial risk of serious harm — severe pain over and above death itself.'
“Alabama's protocol presents a 'substantial risk of serious harm' — severe pain over and above death itself.”
June 9, 2026
Permanent injunction
U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama
Lee v. Hamm — the Permanent Injunction
M.D. Ala., June 9, 2026 · Chief Judge Emily C. Marks (on remand)
The first permanent injunction against a method of execution in American history. On remand from the Eleventh Circuit, Judge Marks held that firing squad is a feasible, readily implemented alternative that would significantly reduce the risk. She permanently barred Alabama from using nitrogen hypoxia to execute Jeffery Lee.
June 10–11, 2026
Blocked execution
Supreme Court of the United States
Lee v. Hamm — the Supreme Court
U.S. Supreme Court, June 10–11, 2026 · The Court (application to vacate denied)
Alabama filed an emergency application to vacate the injunction. For the first time in a modern method-of-execution shadow-docket application, the Supreme Court did not step in. Jeffery Lee survived. Alabama abandoned the method that Alabama invented.
Summaries drawn from Suffocation by Design (2nd ed., 2026), Chapters 1.2, 3.1, 5.1, 8.2, 8.4, and 9.0–9.4.