Comparison Guide
Firing squad vs nitrogen hypoxia.
The Lee v. Hamm permanent injunction did not abolish the death penalty in Alabama. It held that firing squad is a feasible, readily-implemented alternative to nitrogen hypoxia that would significantly reduce the risk of severe conscious suffering. This is the comparison at the center of the ruling.
The legal question, in one paragraph.
Under Glossip v. Gross (2015) and Bucklew v. Precythe (2019), a death-row prisoner challenging a method of execution as cruel and unusual must plead a feasible, readily implemented alternative that would significantly reduce the risk of severe pain. Nitrogen hypoxia was Alabama's alternative to lethal injection. Firing squad became Jeffery Lee's alternative to nitrogen. Chief Judge Emily C. Marks accepted it. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court declined to disturb it.
Side by side.
Firing squad
Authorized in five states (Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah). Used by Utah in 1977, 1996, 2010, and by South Carolina in 2025.Nitrogen hypoxia
Authorized in five states (Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas). Permanently enjoined against Alabama's protocol after Lee v. Hamm (2026).Firing squad
Seconds. Cardiac disruption from a single volley of aimed rifle fire is functionally immediate.Nitrogen hypoxia
Minutes. Alabama's own protocol runs gas for fifteen minutes minimum. The Boyd execution recorded more than 225 agonized breaths.Firing squad
Rapid loss of consciousness; no documented prolonged air hunger.Nitrogen hypoxia
Every one of the eight U.S. nitrogen executions produced eyewitness accounts of visible thrashing, convulsions, and gasping past the state's stated timeline. Court found one to three minutes of severe, conscious air hunger.Firing squad
Standard rifle ammunition. Requires trained shooters and a fixed target chair.Nitrogen hypoxia
99%+ industrial nitrogen through a full-face respirator. Multiple manufacturers of medical-grade gas refused to supply Alabama's chamber.Firing squad
Not addressed by the AVMA — firing squad is not a veterinary or clinical method.Nitrogen hypoxia
The American Veterinary Medical Association classifies inert-gas hypoxia as UNACCEPTABLE for the euthanasia of most large mammals without prior sedation.Firing squad
Documented since the invention of firearms. Used in the modern U.S. since Utah's territorial code.Nitrogen hypoxia
Zero human use before Kenneth Smith, January 25, 2024. No clinical trial. No medical consensus. No pre-execution human data at all.Firing squad
Feasible. Readily implemented. Would significantly reduce the risk of severe pain.Nitrogen hypoxia
Alabama's protocol produces one to three minutes of severe, conscious air hunger. First permanent injunction against a method of execution in American history.Why firing squad ended nitrogen.
For a decade the states argued that nitrogen hypoxia was the humane alternative to lethal injection. The Lee record inverted the argument. Once a federal court held — as a matter of fact — that Alabama's nitrogen protocol inflicts one to three minutes of severe, conscious air hunger, the doctrine that had protected the method from constitutional review became the doctrine that ended it. Firing squad, plain and old, was the alternative the prisoner was required to name — and it satisfied every element of the Bucklew test. Alabama abandoned nitrogen the day after the Supreme Court declined to vacate the injunction.
This page is a plain-language companion to the record. For the underlying filings, see the Legal Library; for the full trial account, see the Timeline entries for May 28 through June 11, 2026; for the survivor, see the executions database.
Compiled by Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood for Suffocation by Design (2nd ed., 2026). Not legal advice. Every citation traces back to the primary record.