Days before Alabama execution, federal court orders new hearing

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Alabama's nitrogen gas execution method violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment for death row inmate Jeffrey Lee, 50, convicted of the 1998 murders of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson during a pawn shop robbery. The panel ordered a lower court to hold a new hearing to determine whether Lee could instead be executed by firing squad, his preferred method. The ruling came just days before Lee's scheduled Thursday execution, though the court did not issue a stay of execution.