2026-05-29T07:51:36-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利——一名联邦法官周四裁定，使用氮气气体处决并不违反宪法禁止残忍和不寻常惩罚的规定，驳回了阿拉巴马州一名囚犯关于该处决方式会造成过度痛苦的指控。
此次裁决是美国全国范围内首次就该处决方式的合宪性进行的庭审后作出的，目前已有8人通过该方式被处决，其中7人在阿拉巴马州，1人在路易斯安那州。该裁决为阿拉巴马州及其他州继续使用该处决方式扫清了障碍，同时也给那些希望通过全面审查阿拉巴马州的处决规程来叫停该方法的批评人士带来了挫折。
这种于2024年首次投入使用的处决方式，是将呼吸器固定在受刑者面部，用纯氮气替换可呼吸空气，使其因缺氧致死。去年，死囚杰弗里·李提起诉讼，对该处决方式提出质疑。现年58岁的李原定于6月11日在阿拉巴马州南部一所监狱内通过氮气气体被处决。
“尽管李证实了氮缺氧致死会带来一定痛苦，但他未能证明该规程违反了第八修正案，构成残忍和不寻常的惩罚，”美国地区法官艾米丽·C·马克斯写道。
州方和李的律师就受刑者在氮气处决过程中保持清醒的时长存在分歧。马克斯写道，证据显示阿拉巴马州的规程“可能会导致1至3分钟的严重空气饥饿——这是最严重的呼吸不适症状”，但并未达到违反宪法的程度。
李的律师在法庭文件中表示，他们将就该裁决提起上诉。
阿拉巴马州总检察长对法官的裁决表示赞赏。
“在全国范围内首次针对氮缺氧处决进行全面庭审后，地区法院认定该方式符合宪法。地区法院审查了所有证据，得出氮缺氧并非残忍和不寻常惩罚的结论，明确了死刑问题应由人民及其代表解决，而非由法院裁决，”阿拉巴马州总检察长史蒂夫·马歇尔说道。
使用氮气气体处决的囚犯在处决过程中曾出现不同程度的抽搐，州方和囚犯的律师就这些抽搐是无意识反应还是痛苦的表现存在争议。阿拉巴马州最近一次氮气处决耗时超过30分钟才完成。
马克斯指出，李面临着很高的法律门槛，因为美国最高法院尚未认定任何州的处决方式构成残忍和不寻常的惩罚。
根据死刑信息中心的数据，已有五个州批准将氮气气体作为处决方式，但仅有两个州实际使用过该方法。
李因1998年12月12日在阿拉巴马州奥维尔小镇附近杀害埃利斯和汤普森而被判死刑。检察官称，李持一把短管霰弹枪闯入一家当铺，枪杀了店主吉米·埃利斯和店员伊莱恩·汤普森。
陪审团以7票赞成、5票反对的结果判处李终身监禁。但一名法官推翻了该量刑建议，判处李死刑。阿拉巴马州于2017年废除了司法推翻制度，不再允许法官无视陪审团在死刑案件中的量刑决定。
李的法律团队未就该裁决立即发表评论。
“死刑真正的折磨在于数十年的等待。根据我们对阿拉巴马州乃至美国境内每一种可用处决方式的了解，我无法想象任何人会选择有意识地窒息而死，”反对死刑的组织“死刑行动”执行主任亚伯拉罕·博诺维茨说道。
他补充道，如果现在对李进行量刑，他不会被判处死刑，因为司法推翻制度已经被废除。
Nitrogen gas executions are constitutional, federal judge rules
2026-05-29T07:51:36-0400 / CBS News
Montgomery, Ala. — A federal judge ruled on Thursday that execution by nitrogen gas doesn’t violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, rejecting an Alabama inmate’s claim that it causes excessive suffering.
The ruling came after the first bench trial in the country to examine the constitutionality of the execution method that has now been used to put eight people to death, seven in Alabama and one in Louisiana. The ruling clears the way for Alabama and other states to continue with the method and is a setback for critics who hoped a fuller examination of Alabama’s protocol would halt its use.
The execution method, first used in 2024, involves strapping a respirator to the person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas, causing death from lack of oxygen. The lawsuit challenging the method was filed last year by death row inmate Jeffery Lee. Lee, 58, is scheduled to be executed with nitrogen gas on June 11 at a south Alabama prison.
“While Lee establishes that death by nitrogen hypoxia involves some suffering, he fails to show that the protocol is cruel and unusual in violation of the Eighth Amendment,” U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks wrote.
Attorneys for the state and Lee disagreed on how long inmates are awake during a nitrogen gas execution. Marks wrote the evidence shows Alabama’s protocol “likely causes severe air hunger -the most severe form of breathing discomfort – for one to three minutes” but did not arise to a constitutional violation.
Lee’s attorneys indicated in court filings that they are appealing the decision.
The Alabama attorney general praised the judge’s decision.
“After the first full trial on nitrogen hypoxia in the entire country, the district court found it to be constitutional. The district court considered all the evidence and concluded that nitrogen hypoxia is not cruel and unusual, affirming that the question of capital punishment belongs to the people and their representatives, not the courts, to resolve,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said.
Inmates executed by nitrogen gas have displayed various levels of shaking during the executions, and lawyers for the state and inmates have disagreed on whether those are involuntary or a sign of suffering. Alabama’s last nitrogen gas execution took more than 30 minutes to complete.
Marks noted that Lee faced a high legal bar because the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to find a state’s method of execution qualifies as cruel and unusual.
Five states have authorized nitrogen gas as an execution method, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, although only two have used it.
Lee was convicted of capital murder for killing Ellis and Thompson on Dec. 12, 1998, near the small town of Orrville, Alabama. Prosecutors said Lee entered a pawn shop with a sawed-off shotgun and fatally shot Jimmy Ellis, the owner of the store, and Elaine Thompson, a store employee.
A jury voted 7-5 that Lee should receive a sentence of life imprisonment. However, a judge overrode that recommendation and sentenced Lee to death. Alabama in 2017 ended the practice of judicial override and no longer allows a judge to disregard a jury’s sentencing decision in death penalty cases.
Lee’s legal team didn’t issue an immediate comment on the decision.
“The real torture of the death penalty is in the decades of waiting. With what we know about each of the available methods of being killed in Alabama or in the U.S., I can’t imagine anyone choosing conscious suffocation,” said Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, a group that opposes the death penalty.
He added that Lee wouldn’t face the death penalty if sentenced today because judicial override has been abolished.
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