The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked Alabama from executing a man using nitrogen hypoxia, a relatively new method of carrying out the death penalty that experts say causes “air hunger” and that a federal court ruled violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the amount of time it takes an inmate to die with the nitrogen gas method is \

A federal appeals court says Alabama's use of nitrogen gas for executions needs more study to see if it violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment