The Supreme Court said Alabama can't execute inmate Jeffery Lee using nitrogen gas, a controversial method a lower court said is likely unconstitutional.

Alabama is waging a last-minute legal fight to execute a man with nitrogen gas on Thursday night, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to set aside a judge's findings that the method violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Lower courts had earlier blocked the execution method, finding it likely violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Supreme Court ruled late Thursday evening that Alabama cannot immediately execute a man using nitrogen gas. The decision upheld a lower court order that had blocked the execution on grounds that the use of nitrogen gas violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Supreme Court declined a request from Alabama to move forward with a scheduled execution using nitrogen hypoxia, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissenting.

Alabama is waging a last-minute legal fight to execute a man with nitrogen gas on Thursday night. The state is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn findings that the method violates

An Alabama man facing the death penalty by nitrogen gas was spared Thursday as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to set aside a lower-court ruling that found the method is unconstitutionally cruel, issuing a brief order that came well after the hour originally planned to initiate Jeffery Lee’s execution.

The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing Alabama’s emergency request to reinstate the nitrogen gas execution of Jeffery Lee, hours before his scheduled death. A federal judge has now declared the method unconstitutional,