press kit
audio clips: jeffery lee in his own words
(recorded in August 2026)
Release for Reprint/Download
MAT RELEASE — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact:
Gigi Peterkin Amplify PR
484.716.3605
gigi@amplifypr.co
Facing Execution on September 17, Jeffery Lee Speaks Out
ATMORE, Ala. — Jeffery Lee's jury voted for a sentence of life without parole, yet Alabama is scheduled to execute him on September 17, 2026.
Only Gov. Kay Ivey can stop it. Lee's supporters are asking the public to call her office at (334) 242-7100 and urge her to commute his sentence to life without parole — the sentence his jury chose.
Now, with 24-hours until his execution date, Lee, 49, is speaking publicly for the first time in years. In newly released audio recordings made from Holman Correctional Facility, where he has spent more than a quarter century on death row, Lee talks about the man he has become, why he believes he deserves to live, and Alabama’s broken promise that it would not execute him by lethal injection.
“What does the state owe me right now? I think they owe me what they said they was [sic] gonna do [and] not seek this execution by lethal injection because they agreed not to do that. And I feel like they owe me their word because they came into agreement in two thousand and eighteen that they wouldn't do what they're trying to do now,” Lee says in one recording.
Photos for Download
(L-R top row) Activists on the steps at the Alabama State Capitol building. (L-R bottom row) Activists on the capitol steps; activists with signs stand on an Alabama highway overpass; marquee at The Capri Theater advertising Life for Jeffery Lee film screening.
Images courtesy of Death Penalty Action. Used with permission. Rights granted for download and republishing with credit attributed to Abe Bonowitz, Death Penalty Action.
Statements from Jeffery Lee
“...here we are again attending another petition and rally drop. To all those who signed the petition, sent out postcards, put up signs, visited universities, from the major work to who it might be considered minor work, in my eyes it is huge and it bigger than me. Because my issues aren’t just mine. There are others here that they’re trying to do the same thing to, in the name of justice.”
– Jeffery Lee
“The curses that were on my life have been broken. Now I find myself positive and producing in the community that I’m in. I’m making a difference in the lives of the people I encounter on a daily basis. Whether it’s teaching the word of God or giving a guy a haricut, my light is shining. I am not the product of my worst mistake. I make a choice everyday I wake up to be better than yesterday. ”
– Jeffery Lee
statements from supporters
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DEBBIE LEVIN, EMMY-WINNING FILMMAKER
“Making Jeffery Lee’s clemency film meant spending months looking beyond a case file and getting to know the human being at the center of it. I found a sweet, deeply empathetic man who has spent more than 26 years growing, mentoring others and becoming someone his 21-year-old self could not have imagined.
You can be for or against the death penalty and still recognize what is wrong here. Jeffery’s jury heard the case and chose life without parole. One partisan, elected judge chose death instead. A justice system cannot claim to trust the judgment of its citizens and then silence them at the precise moment their judgment is one of mercy.”
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Abraham Bonowitz, Executive Director, Death Penalty Action
"Governor Ivey has a chance to be merciful for Jeffery Lee and the other 24 men on Alabama's death row who could not be sentenced to death if their trial was today.
Mr. Lee's jury voted seven to five not to kill him. In my organizing work around this state I have yet to meet anyone who thinks this is OK, even if they support executions in general.
Governor Ivey is a woman of faith. I think I heard it said somewhere that 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.' I hope she remembers that."
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ronald wyers, project hope to abolish the death penalty
“Jeffery is the real deal amongst his peers. When he speaks, others listen. When he preaches, men are fed.
If this is allowed to happen, heaven will be brighter, but Holman Correctional Facility will be dimmer.
Mercy never goes out of style, whether it’s convenient or not. Governor Ivey, you said on your day one that you hoped it could be said when your time serving was done, that Alabama would be better. Governor Ivey, Alabama is better with Jeffery Lee in it. To extend mercy at such a vitriol time in our societies history is better too. “
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Esther Brown, Executive Director Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty
“26 years, that is how long Jeffery Love and I have been friends, co-workers with Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty and most importantly, family because that is who members of our organization are. Yes, we share, love and support each other. JLove is our Secretary Treasurer having worked his way up through the ranks and one of his duties is to send me notes from the weekly board meeting. They are always on time and comprehensive.
Of course as family we share so much more, news about our respective families and our daily lives. To give a little glimpse into why JLove is so loved and treasured by all of us I would like to quote from his text to me received yesterday in reply to one of mine:” The support is felt here by me and I appreciate everyone for what they are doing cause this isn’t just a fight for me or my issues, it involves the whole and for ME that’s what it’s always been about.” Yes, JLove is there for the other and that is who he is!”
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STATEMENT FROM JEFFERY LEE’S LEGAL TEAM
A jury voted for life. Two federal courts ruled this execution method unconstitutional. Attorney General Steve Marshall's response is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and push forward anyway. When a jury says life and the courts say the method is cruel and unusual, the answer is not to find a way around them. This execution is too flawed to move forward. Governor Ivey should intervene.
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STATEMENT FROM AUTHOR JOHN GRISHAM
Twenty-six years ago, Alabama jurors heard evidence in Jeffery Lee's case and voted for life without parole. His judge overrode the jury and ordered Jeffery Lee put to death. The practice of a judge overriding a jury was declared unconstitutional and so indefensible that Alabama itself abolished it in 2017.
A fair trial means the jury's verdict counts, it’s what the Sixth Amendment requires. Jeffery Lee’s jury made its decision, the Alabama Legislature later agreed that juries, not judges, should decide life or death sentences. Governor Ivey can honor the jury, the Legislature, and justice by commuting Jeffery Lee’s sentence to life without parole.
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Sister helen prejean, author dead man walking
“One time I was in an execution chamber and a guard said to me, ‘You know, the man we’re killing tonight is different from that young brash animal that came in here cursing God and everybody. He’s changed his life.’ And this is definitely true of Jeffery.”
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THE FILMED EVIDENCE: Who Alabama is Trying to Kill Tonight
When the State prepares to execute a human being, it tries to make him invisible. We refuse to let Alabama hide Jeffery Lee. Today, for the first time, we are making the film Life of Jeffery Lee public.
Watch it. Because this is who the State of Alabama is trying to kill.
Right now, the State of Alabama is begging the U.S. Supreme Court for permission to consciously suffocate Mr. Lee tonight, demanding they overturn two federal court rulings that found Alabama's gas method unconstitutionally cruel. His jury voted for life. The State is pressing forward anyway.
The State of Alabama wants you to see a case number and a death warrant. We want to show you the man.
(Watch the film below.)
Accountability comes first
Jeffery Lee is responsible for taking lives. Nothing in his past erases that harm. The victims are not abstractions, and their loss is real and permanent.
Jeffery does not dispute the facts of the crime, nor does he ask for forgiveness without accountability. Accountability matters. Justice matters. The pain experienced by the victims and their loved ones matters.
Justice also requires context. It requires truth. And it requires that punishment reflect both the crime and the person who committed it, including whether that person is capable of remorse, rehabilitation, and change.
The question before us is not whether the crime was serious; we know it was.
The question is whether death is the only just response when a jury, after hearing only some of the mitigating factors – the context – chose life without parole.
A Message from Jeffery Lee
Jurors speak out
Mr. Lee’s jury voted 7-5 for life without parole. They didn’t know that a judge could take the power of their verdict away. Jurors talk about what it meant to have their power taken from them.
Currently, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall wants to execute Jeffery Lee under a death sentence the jury rejected using a nitrogen gas method that two federal courts have ruled unconstitutional.
This execution is simply too flawed to move forward.
We remain hopeful that Governor Ivey will intervene.
