Tennessee Halts Two Executions At Last Minute

CBS2CHICAGO ^ | 27 JUNE 2006 | AP

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

(AP) NASHVILLE, Tenn. A federal appeals court judge granted a stay of execution to a convicted murderer Tuesday, two hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection in what would have been the state's second execution in 45 years.

Judge Gilbert S. Merritt on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay after a last-minute appeal was delivered to his home in Nashville.

Gov. Phil Bredesen denied clemency for Sedley Alley shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected all his requests for a stay.

Alley confessed to killing 19-year-old Marine Suzanne Collins in 1985 while she jogged near a Navy base north of Memphis.

The state had planned two back-to-back executions early Wednesday, but a federal judge issued a stay late Tuesday afternoon for the other condemned man.

Federal Judge Todd Campbell halted the execution and ordered a hearing to determine whether Paul Dennis Reid was competent to drop his appeals of seven death sentences tied to a string of 1997 murders.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

DAMN JUDGES!!!

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

"President Jimmy Carter nominated Gilbert Merritt to the United States Court of Appeals in 1977. As a member of the court, Judge Merritt has taken part in thousands of cases and authored over eleven hundred reported opinions. Among appellate lawyers in the Sixth Circuit, he has a reputation for his incisive analysis of cases, his quick focus on the central issues, his direct and probing questions at oral argument and his insistence that both the reasoning and the outcome of judicial decisions make understandable sense."

SOURCE

[Not now, Not ever!]

Why is that I am not in the least surprised to find that goober's hand in there?

[pnz1]

I don't understand how the US Supreme court rejected all Alley's appeals for a stay, but they found a judge in TN to do it?

[gondramB]

>>Sedley Alley<<

None of the articles I've seen so far say what the grounds were in the Sedley Alley case, only that the appeal was delivered to the judge's home.

[dr_lew]

Surely these last minute stays constitute cruel and unusual punishment. I look forward to a judgement granting due compensation.

[soccer_maniac]

Reminds me of

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Texas got one today!

[quantim]

It's not fair to blame the judge. Blame the electorate that allows this in the first place.

We are supposed to own gubmint, not the other way around.

[Skibane]

Texas got one today!

"Other states are trying to abolish the death penalty; my state is putting in an express lane!" - Ron White

[Ingtar]

Alley admitted to using a large sharpened branch to penetrate her sexually until she was dead... later he dropped his appeal... his lawyers got the stay on behalf of his family... he did not ask for it.

[goldstategop]

I'm not surprised. Perhaps if judges' families were strung up and had their throats slashed, judges would be less soliticious of murderers' welfare. The brutal reality of the crime might awaken these arrogant SOBs in black robes to what murder is really all about. When you sit in an ivory tower disconnected from the real world, you stop paying attention to the facts in front of you and begin believing in nonsensical theories that detract from the principal purpose of any justice system: punishment. I think judges have lost sight of that role. Without justice, you invite other evils, like vigilantism.

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[wolficatZ]

Suzanne Marie Collins (June 8, 1966 - July 12, 1985), was a Marine Lance Corporal who was brutally raped and murdered by Sedley Alley on the night of July 12, 1985. At the time of her murder she was stationed at Naval Air Station Memphis (NAS Memphis in Millington, Tennessee. Collins was a student undergoing training at the base, and was scheduled to graduate from avionics training the following day. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

 

 

"Sedley Alley's story was that his wife left him after getting in a fight.

 

He drank two six-packs of beer and a bottle of wine. He told authorities that he had gone out for more liquor when his car accidentally hit Collins as she jogged near the air base.

 

 Alley's story is that he accidentally killed the young woman, however, an autopsy revealed that her skull had been fractured with a screwdriver. After she died, a tree limb was rammed into her vagina with sufficient force to enter her abdomen and lacerate one of her lungs."

 

 

 

[Lancey Howard]

Exactly! All you can hope for is that these ruthless murderers will occasionally pick their victims from the families of liberal judges.

[Dustbunny]

Sedley Alley is an animal. The judge granting the stay has to be mentally blind.

[Coldwater Creek]

Alley was executed last night and Reid will probably be today.

[Coldwater Creek]

Alley assumed room temperature at 2:12 this morning.

Reid will more than likely be executed by 12:00 noon today.

[GailA]

merritt is an anti-death penalty judge just like his friend john t. nixon. They never miss a chance to safe a murderer.

[Dilbert56]

I think these last-minute stays are torture for the defendants. They are reconciled with their fate and then have their appointment with destiny postponed, perhaps several times. Last-minute stays of execution should be banned as cruel and unusual punishment. Not reprieves! they are too cruel. Executions must be carried out on time to be humane! (Snicker)

Conversely, perhaps really heinous crimes should result in a sentence of death with zero to n last second deferments. The DC Snipers, for example, should be sentenced to wander around parking lots and gas stations day after day, not knowing at which moment a sniper will exact society's revenge.