[Recovering_Democrat]

I read somewhere else the decision was UNANIMOUS.

[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.

[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>