Alito Votes to Stay Mo. Execution

The Washington Post ^ | 2/2/2006 | GIna Holland

[NCSteve]

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the court's conservatives in a death penalty case on his first day on the court.

Handling his first case, Alito sided with five other justices Wednesday evening in refusing to allow Missouri to execute inmate Michael Taylor.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting an execution stay issued by an appeals court, but Alito sided with the majority in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.

[NCSteve]

I don't know of a way to justify this vote on federalist or originalist grounds.

[alisasny]

All I can think is that he did not have appropriate time to research the case. That would make sense to me.

To fault him on this on day 1 is silly.

[frankjr]

Yes indeed...bring back Harriet Miers!!!!!

[Vaquero]

he gets this cold on the day he takes the oath and you expect him to have a man put to death without reviewing.

give him a couple of weeks before condeming him.

[Always Right]

The 12th time this article has been posted....

[twigs]

I have to agree. I would like to know more about his reasoning, however. From everything I could see about Alito, he's a stickler to the law and the facts, regardless of the issue.

[traderrob6]

"I don't know of a way to justify this vote on federalist or originalist grounds"

Constitutional scholar are we?

[Porterville]

From the story... I ain't no high fangled lawyer dabling in the black arts of double speak but this is from the story:

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.

[Always Right]

All I can think is that he did not have appropriate time to research the case.

The Supreme Court allowed the very same issue to go forward in Florida a week ago. Having two courts rule on this issue lets the Supreme Court decide the issue based on the best case available. This ruling is no big deal and certainly is no idication of Alito's posistion on the issue.

[Joe 6-pack]

"...and you expect him to have a man put to death without reviewing."

You are correct. In this light I think he demonstrated very sound judicial temperment.

[NCSteve]

The 12th time this article has been posted....

Link? I searched half a dozen times before posting it. And don't link me to the AP article. That's not the same one.

[Porterville]

Is that called "presedence" or in my not so lawyered tongue... "it happened before"?

[NCSteve]

To fault him on this on day 1 is silly.

I agree completely. I suspect you are right about him having no time to prepare. And where a human life is at stake, it is far better to err on the side of caution.

[Always Right]

Click on the Washington Post link above. It is the ery same AP article printed in the Washington Post and it has been posted a dozen times from varioius other sources.

By GINA HOLLAND The Associated Press

[theDentist]

"We're Dooooooomed!!!"

[Katya]

He only voted to "stay" the execution...not to stop it from ever happening.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I think in the end, the scumbag will be executed, and some FReepers will have wasted gun powder over nothing.

[gondramB]

I think that we should not make death painful. Being paralyzed sounds really unpleasant. We should use a fatal overdose of opiates. Besides, we would have less guilty people appealing for years.

And look at this
"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."

It sounds like Arkansas may have handed this to Alito on purpose and he may be wise to take a few days to look at it.

On the other hand this is from the Washington Post so it's not unreasonable to assume they are biased against Alito.

[Lady GOP]

Yes indeed...bring back Harriet Miers

The liberals are probably wishing that now. She probably could have swung sometime like Sandra Day O'Connor. No they have the "RIGHT" guy in there now.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Gina Holland is a moron same for those who take what she writes as legal fact.