Alito Splits With Conservatives on Inmate

Yahoo! ^ | 02.01.06 2 minutes ago | GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

[definitelynotaliberal]

WASHINGTON - New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the court's conservatives Wednesday night, refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection.

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Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.

Earlier in the day, Alito was sworn in for a second time in a White House ceremony, where he was lauded by President Bush as a man of "steady demeanor, careful judgment and complete integrity."

He was also was given his assignment for handling emergency appeals: Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. As a result, Missouri filed with Alito its request for the high court to void a stay and allow Taylor's execution.

The court's split vote Wednesday night ended a frenzied day of filings. Missouri twice asked the justices to intervene and permit the execution, while Taylor's lawyers filed two more appeals seeking delays.

Reporters and witnesses had gathered at the state prison awaiting word from the high court on whether to go ahead with the execution.

An appeals court will now review Taylor's claim that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment, a claim also used by two Florida death-row inmates that won stays from the Supreme Court over the past week. The court has agreed to use one of the cases to clarify how inmates may bring last-minute challenges to the way they will be put to death.

Alito replaced Sandra Day O'Connor, who had often been the swing vote in capital punishment cases. He was expected to side with prosecutors more often than O'Connor, although as an appeals court judge, his record in death penalty cases was mixed.

Scalia and Thomas have consistently sided with states in death penalty cases and have been especially critical of long delays in carrying out executions.

Taylor was convicted of killing 15-year-old Ann Harrison, who was waiting for a school bus when he and an accomplice kidnapped her in 1989. Taylor pleaded guilty and said he was high on crack cocaine at the time.

Taylor's legal team had pursued two challenges — claiming that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment and that his constitutional rights were violated by a system tilted against black defendants.

The court, acting without Alito, rejected Taylor's appeal that argued that Missouri's death penalty system is racist. Taylor is black and his victim was white. He filed the appeal on Tuesday, the day that Alito was confirmed by the Senate.

[Guenevere]

Well, Drudge is running with it as his headline.

But you know Drudge....he just loves stirring the bees.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

Judges are not politicians. They do not think about potential rulings as they await promotion to a higher court. Their rules of conduct require that they consider cases only as they come before them when they are on that court. I am amused that so many are wasting a lot of powder over a procedural ruling like this.

[RetSignman]

I think we should all remember the credentials of Alito. His history of careful consideration was one of them. I think he wanted and needed time to review this case and voted on the side of life until then.

I'm sure that most people would not have looked favorable on a decision that would have resulted in a rush to death.

[jveritas]

The racist argument in this case was struck down 8-0 and Alito was not yet sworn in.

[Just mythoughts]

You are correct, amazingly all the news reports regarding this locally, and this killer killed locally, pointed only to that point of appeal. It was a local reporter who pass on the courts decision to this killer, who said he was praying, (did not say for self), praying for the gal, her family, just praying and praying.

I lived not more than 30 miles away from where these killers snatched this 15 year old, raped, murdered her and stuffed her in the trunk of a car. NOT much to think about guilt or innocence, he did it.

[Stuart Scott]

I meant for him to recuse himself. My bad.

[manwiththehands]

I'm very confused, too. But this ruling doesn't bother me at all. What bothers me is this:

"Earlier in the day, Alito was sworn in for a second time ..."

What's the matter? Didn't the first swearing in "stick"?

[Revenge of Sith]

I never said it was inconsistent with the Church because you certainly have a right to oppose the death penalty. However, here's what then Cardinal Ratzinger said in a memo about denying communion to pro-abortion politicians to US bishops during the 2004 presidential campaign.

"Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia ... There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia."

This statement carries weight because Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI.

[TFMcGuire]

Common sense.

How many issues have you personally not thought through that are of this magnitude.

And it would surprise me if you are anywhere near his age or any type of judge let alone an appeals court judge.

Doesn't take brilliance on this one!

[Terriergal]

Well... the stories are pretty confusing. I thought I heard Rush start to explain it today pretty well. Then I had to get out of the car and missed the rest.

[Reagan 76]

This really is not a "Catholic Position". Roman Catholics may support the death penalty; the Vatican had one up until 1968. Many bishops try to weave the "Seamless Garment" which nicely covers those who try to put abortion and the death penalty on the same moral plane. They are not and have never been; Thomas Aquinas writes on the subject.