"Appeals panel refuses to vacate Winfield stay," is this morning's AP report, via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to overturn a stay of execution for Missouri inmate John Winfield, and the state has appealed for a hearing before the full court.
The panel issued its ruling late Monday. Winfield is scheduled to die at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for killing two St. Louis County women in 1996.
A federal judge granted the stay Friday, ruling that a prison worker dropped plans to write a letter in support of clemency due to intimidation from staff.
MissouriNet posts, "Winfield attorneys seek stay from U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice," by Mike Lear.
Attorneys for convicted murderer John Winfield have asked U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito to issue a stay in Winfield’s execution, scheduled for early Wednesday morning at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center at Bonne Terre.
A stay issued last week by a federal judge in St. Louis is still in place.
His attorneys ask Justice Alito to halt the execution until his appeal filed in a case brought by several condemned Missouri inmates is resolved. That is pending in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has declined to stay the execution in light of it.
Justice Alito has issued stays in other recent executions scheduled in Missouri, including that of inmate Russell Bucklew, which last month was halted by the full Court after Alito’s action.
Earlier coverage of John Winfield's case begins at the link.
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