Today's Arizona Republic reports, "Arizona's high court issues stay of execution." It's by Michael Kiefer.
Questions about the competency of Gov. Jan Brewer's recent appointees to the state clemency board prompted the Arizona Supreme Court to stay today's scheduled execution of death-row prisoner Samuel Lopez, saying he is entitled to a fair hearing before the board.
The state high court's decision late Tuesday was not a permanent reprieve for Lopez, who was sentenced to death for the 1986 rape and murder of a Phoenix woman. The justices set a new execution date of June 27, allowing time for issues raised by the recent clemency-board appointments to be worked out.
Lopez's defense team claimed that he was denied a fair clemency hearing on May 7 because three members of the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency were improperly appointed and had not undergone mandatory training.
The high court in its order Tuesday only acknowledged the lack of training and set the new execution date to allow the instruction to take place.
And:
Earlier Tuesday, a three-judge appeals panel denied a motion claiming that Lopez's attorneys had failed to present adequate mitigating evidence during his trials and early appeals.
A separate three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit criticized the Arizona Department of Corrections for repeatedly altering its manner of execution with each prisoner -- what the judges referred to as a "rolling protocol" -- but a majority did not think it merited a stay of execution. A key issue was the department's apparent inability to insert catheter lines into the arm veins of the condemned prisoners. Generally, when that fails, a doctor inserts a line surgically into an artery in the prisoner's groin.
The judges did not think the lapses in protocol rose to the level of "cruel and unusual punishment" forbidden by the U.S. Constitution. One dissenting appeals judge, however, objected to the secrecy the department maintains in its executions and called on the media to push for access to observe the pre-execution procedures, as has been done in other states.
"Arizona delays execution to provide training time," is the AP filing, via KTAR.
The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday postponed a scheduled execution to provide time for newly appointed members of the state clemency board to undergo required training before they hold a hearing for the condemned man.
Samuel Villegas Lopez had been set for execution Wednesday for the murder of a Phoenix woman.
The Supreme Court granted a stay requested by his lawyers on the grounds that Lopez was denied a fair chance for clemency because a majority of the Board of Executive Clemency's members have yet to undergo four weeks of required training.
The court said it wasn't directly ruling on that issue, but it rescheduled Lopez's execution for June 27. It said the postponement served the ``interests of justice'' by providing the five-member board with time for the training and for holding a clemency hearing for Lopez.
The court rejected another claim by Lopez's lawyers that some board members recently appointed by Gov. Jan Brewer are unqualified for failing to previously demonstrate an interest in corrections. That's a requirement under state law.
ReutersLegal posts, "Arizona top court stays execution over clemency hearing." It's by Tim Gaynor.
The Arizona Supreme Court rescheduled his execution for June 27 so that attorneys could address claims that he was denied a fair clemency hearing because some members of the state clemency board had not received a mandated four-week training course.
"We conclude that the interests of justice are best served by staying the pending execution and forthwith issuing ... a new warrant of execution, for June 27," the court said in its ruling.
"The period between now and the new execution date will allow training of new board members and a clemency hearing to be subsequently held by the board," it added.
He had been due to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning, at the state prison in Florence, some 60 miles southeast of Phoenix.
Lopez would be the fourth Arizona inmate to be executed this year in Arizona, and the 32nd since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1992.
Earlier coverage from Arizona begins at the link.
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