What to know about execution methods in the U.S. after judge blocks Alabama from using nitrogen gas

By — Rebecca Boone, Associated Press Rebecca Boone, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-to-know-about-execution-methods-in-the-u-s-after-judge-blocks-alabama-from-using-nitrogen-gas Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter What to know about execution methods in the U.S. after judge blocks Alabama from using nitrogen gas Nation Jun 10, 2026 5:32 PM EDT Alabama's plans to execute a death row inmate using nitrogen gas appeared to be thwarted Tuesday by a federal judge permanently blocking the state from using that method, declaring it violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. READ MORE: U.S. at front of death penalty debate after Alabama execution uses nitrogen gas, the first ever U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks issued the decision permanently enjoining the state from executing Jeffery Lee by nitrogen gas. Lee was scheduled to be executed Thursday at an Alabama prison. A spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state is appealing the decision. The case will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has previously let nitrogen executions proceed. Tuesday's ruling marks the latest potential shift in the United States' ever-evolving use of capital punishment. States with the death penalty have a variety of execution methods on the books, including lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas and firing squad. Here's a look at the execution methods currently in use and the ones that have fallen out of favor: Lethal injection remains the primary method in most states Twenty-eight states and the federal government authorize the use of lethal injection, in which an inmate has one or more deadly drugs injected into their bodies as they are strapped to a gurney, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit center. But lethal injection has been plagued by problems. States often struggle to obtain the necessary drugs, in part because pharmaceutical manufacturers have banned the use of the lethal injection components for executions. Some execution teams have struggled or failed to find suitable veins, needles have become clogged or disengaged and in some cases multiple doses of the drugs have been needed to kill the condemned person. Those problems have prompted some states to experiment with different execution methods. After a botched execution attempt in 2024, Idaho lawmakers made death by firing squad the state's primary execution method. Lethal injection was first proposed in New York in the late 1800s, though that state eventually opted to go with electrocution, said Fordham Law School Professor Deborah Denno. The very thing that made lethal injection appealing to death penalty proponents — its relatively sanitized appearance — appalled medical societies around the country, Denno said. "It's what people would expect when they walk into a hospital, what you woul