Federal judge blocks Alabama's nitrogen hypoxia executions as cruel and unusual

A federal judge permanently blocked Alabama from executing death-row inmate Jeffrey Lee by nitrogen hypoxia, ruling the method violates the Eighth Amendment and subjects inmates to severe distress and suffocation risk for minutes. The ruling overturns a prior decision, allows a potential firing-squad alternative, and sets the stage for appeals and possible Supreme Court review with broader implications for nitrogen gas executions in other states.