Divided Supreme Court says execution can proceed -- but the death warrant had already expired
Source: Washington Post
Divided Supreme Court says execution can proceed but the death warrant had already expired
By Robert Barnes April 12 at 9:04 AM
Conservative justices on the Supreme Court overruled lower courts in a middle-of-the-night order and said an Alabama execution could proceed, over the objections of their liberal colleagues who wanted to discuss the case Friday morning.
The order came too late for the state to carry out the execution of Christopher Lee Price, and Alabama will have to ask a state court to set another execution date.
But the 5-to-4 ruling at the Supreme Court indicated that the courts new conservative majority is far less likely to agree to last-minute stay requests from those facing execution. It also emphasized the stark divide between conservative and liberal justices on capital punishment and the most humane way to carry it out.
What is at stake in this case is the right of a condemned inmate not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment, wrote Justice Stephen G. Breyer, objecting to the majoritys decision.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/divided-supreme-court-says-execution-can-proceed--but-the-death-warrant-had-already-expired/2019/04/12/01b17484-5d16-11e9-a00e-050dc7b82693_story.html
dchill
(38,626 posts)What a concept.
PJMcK
(22,074 posts)The United States is mostly alone of the so-called advanced nations in condoning capital punishment.
The government should never have the power to take a person's life. It's barbaric, antiquated and ineffective in deterring others from committing crimes.
Our nation is being dominated by the right wing ideologues who are driven by selfishness and primitive motives.
ETA: It's almost humorous that the Supreme Court ruled on the stay but it was too late! There's a rule or law in Alabama that the execution order has an expiration date and SCOTUS missed it. After all, there must be rules about the state taking a life, (sarcasm).
Eliot Rosewater
(31,151 posts)Our SC is useless, either we increase the number or we impeach the perjurers, but as it is now the Court has no validity at all
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,929 posts)We should call it that every time.