Emergency application · Capital case
Execution by nitrogen gas
Anthony Boyd v. John Q. Hamm, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections
What did the Court do?
The Court denied the request on October 23, 2025 and refused to halt the execution.
Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case. Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson would have ruled the other way.
What's being asked
Anthony Boyd, a prisoner under a death sentence in Alabama, asks the Supreme Court to pause his execution. He also asks the Court to review his challenge to Alabama’s nitrogen-gas execution method. He argues the method may leave him conscious while experiencing suffocation. He says it violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment because a feasible alternative exists.
What the Court did
The Court refused Boyd’s emergency request, denying a temporary pause of his execution. It also refused Supreme Court review (denied certiorari), without deciding his constitutional claim. Justice Sotomayor dissented (wrote that she disagreed), and Justices Kagan and Jackson signed her dissent; the order gives no full vote tally.
- Dissented
- Wrote separately
- Vote not published
- Dissenting · 3recorded against the Court's order
What it means
The emergency ruling addressed whether to pause the execution; it did not decide whether Alabama’s method violates the Constitution. Boyd challenged a ruling from the Eleventh Circuit; the record does not say whether further proceedings continue there. No related merits case or argument date is listed.
Separate writings
- Read (PDF)
Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justice Kagan and Justice Jackson, dissenting
Sources
Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 25A457. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.