Alabama killer Jeffery Lee, who gunned down masked Elvis singer Orion in 1998, faces lethal injection

A 49-year-old Alabama convict is set to die by lethal injection Thursday after a judge blocked his execution by nitrogen gas, officials said.

Jeffery Lee, 49, is held at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in south Alabama.

The lethal injection was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at the prison facility, records show.

Lee was convicted of capital murder for killing two people during a 1998 pawnshop robbery in rural Dallas County, court records show.

The state of Alabama had initially sought to execute the condemned inmate on June 11 using nitrogen gas, court documents state.

A judge issued a ruling that blocked the state from using that method, records show.

Following that decision, the Alabama attorney general’s office immediately filed paperwork seeking a new execution date by lethal injection, according to court filings.

Lee and his defense team launched a final legal effort to spare his life, attorneys said.

His lawyers noted that the trial jury recommended life imprisonment rather than capital punishment, court records show.

The trial judge chose to override that jury recommendation, according to court documents.

Lee’s attorneys also argued in court that the state should not be legally permitted to switch execution methods, filings show.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Lee’s request to stay the execution on Thursday, court records show.

The justices rejected the condemned inmate’s petition without comment, according to court records.

That high court ruling was issued about six hours before the scheduled lethal injection, records show.

Twenty-six death row inmates have been executed across the United States so far this year, according to records.

Those executions included a Texas inmate who was put to death by lethal injection for a triple murder at his neighbor’s house, records show.

In Georgia, a judge intervened Wednesday to halt the planned execution of a man convicted of killing two real estate agents, court records show.

The Dallas County murders occurred on Dec. 12, 1998, at Jimmy’s Pawn Shop in Orrville, west of Selma, police said.

Jimmy Ellis, the owner of the pawnshop, was shot and killed during the robbery, police said.

Elaine Thompson, an employee at the store, was also shot and killed, police said.

A second employee, Helen King, survived the gunfire by playing dead, prosecutors said.

Lee entered the business and asked to look at wedding rings, the surviving witness testified.

He told store workers he would return after obtaining money from his grandmother, according to trial testimony.

Lee returned to the shop a short time later carrying a sawed-off shotgun, trial records state.

The gunman then opened fire on Ellis, Thompson and the other worker, according to court testimony.

The surviving witness dropped to the floor and pretended to be dead while the shooting took place, according to court records. She phoned 911 as soon as Lee exited the building, prosecutors said.

Ellis had developed a nationwide following as an Elvis Presley impersonator due to the vocal similarities between them, records show.

The store owner performed as a masked singer using the name “Orion,” records show.

Ellis was later the subject of a documentary film released in 2015, records show.

A jury convicted Lee in 2000 of capital murder and attempted murder, court records show.

Lee is one of approximately two dozen inmates on Alabama’s death row who received death sentences after judicial overrides, records show.

The trial jury voted 7-5 to recommend that Lee receive a sentence of life without parole, according to court records. The trial judge overrode that vote and sentenced him to death, records show.

Alabama lawmakers abolished judicial override in 2017, ending the authority of judges to disregard jury sentencing decisions in capital cases, records show.

The 2017 statute was not made retroactive, leaving earlier death sentences in place, according to state records.

Supporters urged Gov. Kay Ivey to commute Lee’s death sentence to life imprisonment in accordance with the jury vote, advocates said.

Advocates demonstrated Tuesday outside the Alabama Capitol carrying a banner that read, “HONOR THE JURY.”

A spokeswoman for Gov. Kay Ivey said Thursday that the governor had no plans to intervene or grant clemency, records show.

Gina Maiola, a spokeswoman for Ivey, said the 2017 law signed by the governor was clearly intended not to apply retroactively.

“It preserved all existing death sentences, ensuring promises are kept to victims’ loved ones,” Maiola said.

Lee previously filed a legal challenge in 2016 against the state’s lethal injection protocol, court documents show.

After Alabama lawmakers approved nitrogen gas as an execution method, Lee chose nitrogen as his designated method, records show.

Lee agreed to dismiss his 2016 lethal injection lawsuit in 2018 based on a state agreement, court records show.

The state agreed that “if he is to be executed, defendants will carry out that execution by nitrogen hypoxia,” according to court filings.

Attorneys for the condemned inmate argued that Alabama remains bound by the terms of that 2018 agreement, court records show.

The defense argued that the state could revise its nitrogen procedures to resolve constitutional concerns or utilize a firing squad, court documents show.

“I feel like they owe me their word because they came into agreement in 2018 that wouldn’t do what they are trying to do now,” Lee said in audio clips released by his team.

The Alabama attorney general’s office urged the Supreme Court to allow the lethal injection to proceed, arguing state law does not forbid the change in method, court filings show.

“An unpunished murder is an intrinsic and ongoing harm to those interests and to the rule of law. Nearly twenty-eight years is decades too long,” lawyers with the attorney general’s office wrote.

Lethal injection served as the nation’s primary execution method for decades before drug procurement shortages led states to consider alternate options, records show.

Lethal injection remains Alabama’s primary execution method under state law, records show.

Alabama began administering executions by nitrogen gas in 2024, utilizing a respirator mask to replace breathable air with nitrogen and cause oxygen deprivation, state records show.

Nitrogen gas has been utilized in seven executions in Alabama and one in Louisiana, records show.