Alito Sides With Mo. Inmate on Death-Row (Retread troll denied stay of execution)

BREITBART.COM ^ | 02/02/06 | GINA HOLLAND

[Bullitt]

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.

[Bullitt]

A 15 YEAR OLD IS DEAD, THIS GUY HAS PITY FOR THE PUNISHMENT?

[Recovering_Democrat]

I read somewhere else the decision was UNANIMOUS.

[Caipirabob]

This was a rpocedureal vote. The Supreme court declined to hear a complaint that racism was involved in the sentencing as the defendent was black. This was prior to Alito being sworn in and this particular vote was his first, and pretty much already decided.

[Bullitt]

"The court's split vote Wednesday night ended a frenzied day of filings"

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Doesn't sound unanimous. Once again this country does prove that a killer is due more consideration than the victim.

[billhilly]

I read that he voted opposite Thomas and Scalia, but that means nothing until the full context of the case is known.

[AntiGuv]

There were several motions in this case yesterday, as is typical of last-minute death-row appeals, and quite obviously the decision referred to by the article was not unanimous.

[Pro-Bush]

This sucks.

[Howlin]

You've gone off half-cocked, pal.

[Bullitt]

I have?? Where? What do you mean?

[leadpenny]

Maybe Scalia hasn't had his father/son talk with Alito yet?

[billhilly]

It is possible to believe in the death penalty, as I do, and also see that the state does not get it wrong. It would take few cases of wrongful death to completely turn the public against the death penalty, thus depriving society the protection derived from it.

[Bullitt]

"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 Taylor pleaded guilty and said he was high on crack cocaine at the time"

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That sounded cruel and unusual to me.

[AntiGuv]

The Supreme court declined to hear a complaint that racism was involved in the sentencing as the defendent was black.

Umm.. That was one of several appeals filed yesterday, and it was not the appeal in which Alito split with Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas. The 6-3 split decision involved a last minute appeal challenging lethal injection as "cruel and unusual" - the same as in the two Florida executions that were stayed this week.

[AmericaUnited]

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.

Give the guy a break! I don't fault Alito for wanting to make sure that absolutely everything is examined with a fine tooth comb and done properly in a death penalty case. He is a though, detailed oriented jurist. This does not make him a flaming liberal.

[AntiGuv]

PS. And it's worth mentioning that if the Supreme Court is about to begin staying all executions while the lethal injection challenge is pending, there aren't gonna be any executions for a while..

[lentulusgracchus]

It says here,

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.

The story noted that, absent O'Connor and Alito, the Court had voted to reject an appeal by the same party on grounds that Missouri's justice system is "racist" (the convict is black, the girl he and his accomplice murdered was white -- but that wasn't "racist").

His alternative ground for appeal was a claim that lethal injections are unconstitutionally "cruel and unusual". I.e. "you can't do me like I did her!"

<speculation>

Maybe Alito wanted to crack his knuckles and flex a bit on the subject of the death penalty, giving this guy a hearing so that Alito and the conservatives could tell him in a clear voice exactly why he's toast and going to hell.

</spec>

[Bullitt]

15 years have gone by for this raping murderer. Long enough for punishment for what he did.

[Bullitt]

well?

[BigSkyFreeper]

This is the second time his counsel has run this case up to the USSC, the first time around, it was rejected because the counsel argued on the basis of the entire judicial process being tilted against blacks.

[AntiGuv]

I think it had more to do with the fact that this was the exact same basis for appeal as that granted twice this week in Florida. It would hardly seem just if they grant a stay of execution twice and then deny a stay of execution for the same reason, especially if in the end the challenge is decided in favor of the Florida inmates.

What I don't quite get, though, is how any executions by lethal injection can now go forward until this is decided, since every one of them can be appealed on the exact same basis.