The New York Times has, "In Alabama, Rare Delay of Inmate's Execution." It covers a stay issued by the governor of that state, as well as the stay issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in Texas.
In a fresh sign that the use of lethal injection in capital punishment faces an uncertain future, the Supreme Court issued an unusual last-minute reprieve for a death-row inmate in Texas late last night.
Although the court gave no reason for its decision, the inmate, Carlton Turner Jr., had appealed to the court after it agreed on Tuesday to consider the constitutionality of lethal injection, the most commonly used method of execution in the United States. The decision suggests that until it issues a ruling on lethal injection, the court may be receptive to requests to delay such executions, at least for defendants whose cases raise no procedural issues.
“It’s an indication that the court believes there are real questions about what states are doing in this area,” said Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, which opposes executions. “What this signals is that the burden is now shifting to the states to do something about all these problems folks have been talking about.”
The vote on the stay of execution was not announced, but at least five justices needed to support it.
And:
The full effect of the Supreme Court’s decision is not yet known, but it may interrupt what appears to be emerging as a patchwork, state-by-state response to its decision Tuesday to look at whether lethal injection causes unnecessary suffering.
Some states, even ardent pro-death penalty ones like Alabama, are slowing down. Others, like Texas, had been cruising at full speed; the state executed a prisoner a few hours after the court’s decision on Tuesday and was planning to proceed with its 27th execution of the year last night when the Court intervened. Eleven states have stopped lethal injections altogether, as litigation proceeds.
“It’s going to be a hodgepodge,” said George Kendall, a veteran civil rights lawyer in New York. “Some states will shut down, and in some it will be business as usual.”
All week, Texas officials had maintained that nothing had changed and that executions could proceed. Mr. Turner, 28, of Dallas, was convicted of having fatally shot his adoptive parents in 1998. Another execution is scheduled in the state next week.
Steve Hall, executive director of the StandDown Texas Project, which advocates a moratorium on executions pending a state study, said Tuesday’s execution might have come too soon after the high court’s decision to review lethal injection for the justices to want to intervene in that case. Mr. Hall said he would welcome a stay of all other executions until the court rules on the constitutionality of lethal injection.
The Supreme Court’s decisions this week seemed certain to at least slow the pace, particularly in Southern states. Death penalty lawyers in North Carolina and Virginia, for instance, are already asking for delays both in executions and the development of new procedures for them.
“I think it will hold up quite a few executions,” said Richard C. Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group opposed to capital punishment.
AP has, "U.S. Supreme Court Spares Texas Killer."
The Supreme Court isn't expected to rule on the Kentucky case until some time next year.
Another Texas execution is scheduled for next week, one of at least three more set for this year. The status of that case was uncertain in light of Thursday's developments.
In their response to Turner's appeal, the Texas attorney general's office said that unlike the Kentucky case, Turner had a pending execution and the appeal questioning lethal injection was filed the day he was to die.
Only two days earlier, another Texas inmate was executed just hours after the justices announced their intention to review the Kentucky case. Lawyers attributed that execution to the short period they had to prepare appeals for convicted killer Michael Richard. The justices did consider an appeal before turning it down, and Richard was executed after about a two-hour delay.
The Dallas Morning News has, "Court halts Irving killer's execution."
After state courts earlier Thursday refused to halt the punishment, Mr. Turner's lawyers went to the Supreme Court, which on Tuesday agreed to review an appeal from two condemned inmates in Kentucky who argued the three-drug process used in lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel. The same procedure is used in Texas.
"The inmate will be forced into a chemical straitjacket, unable to express the fact of his suffocation," the appeal in Mr. Turner's case alleged.
Mr. Turner's lawyers went early Thursday to his trial court judge with a request to withdraw the execution order. When that failed, they went to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which voted 5-4 to refuse to stop the punishment. The case then went to the Supreme Court.
In the Houston Chronicle Polly Ross Hughes has, "Condemned Dallas killer wins reprieve."
The court order made no mention of its reasons for stopping the punishment. On Tuesday, the court agreed to review a case in Kentucky which uses the same method of execution.
"I'm relieved that the Supreme Court stepped in," said Morris Moon, a member of Turner's defense team. "I'm hopeful that the state of Texas now recognizes that this is a serious constitutional issue and ... will step in and stop those executions itself."
Moon said both sides now have 90 days to file briefs for the high court to consider.
Last-ditch appeals by Turner's attorneys earlier Thursday had failed to stop the pending execution despite defense arguments that such Texas executions should cease until the Supreme Court rules whether lethal injection is legal.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to delay Turner's execution on a 5-4 vote.
In his dissenting opinion, Judge Tom Price wrote, "I do not understand why we would allow this applicant ... to proceed to execution without our having resolved that question."
David Dow, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center and one of Turner's attorneys, said he was surprised the Texas appeals court didn't intervene to stop executions until the Supreme Court rules on lethal injection.
"I expected them to," he said.
The lethal injection index is here.
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