Supreme Court turns away challenge to federal executions by lethal injection
In 2019 Attorney General William Barr's moved to reinstate the federal death penalty, underscoring the stark law-and-order philosophy of the Trump administration. At the time, he directed the head of the Bureau of Prisons to execute five inmates he said represented the "worst criminals."
The Bureau of Prisons adopted a new lethal injection protocol consisting of a single drug, pentobarbital.
The
federal inmates involved in the appeal were Daniel Lewis Lee, who
killed a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl; Wesley Ira
Purkey, who raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl; Alfred Bourgeois, who
tortured and killed his own 2-year-old daughter; and Dustin Lee Honken,
who shot and killed five people, including two young girls.
Although the order was unsigned, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have heard the challenge.
"The
prisoners in these cases have other challenges that have not been fully
decided yet, but this was perhaps the central legal objection to Barr's
reinstitution of the federal death penalty," said Steve Vladeck, CNN
Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of
Law. "Today's ruling removes a major obstacle to the resumption of
federal executions, but not the only one."
A district judge blocked the executions
from going forward, holding that the protocol conflicts with the
Federal Death Penalty Act, which requires adherence to a state's method
of execution. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of
Columbia Circuit put the executions on hold, ruling that a delay would
not hurt the government, particularly because it has waited several
years to announce a new protocol.
Chutkan
said the public interest is not served by "executing individuals before
they have had the opportunity to avail themselves of legitimate
procedures to challenge the legality of their executions."
Lawyers
for the inmates argued that the government is trying to push the issue
forward even though it took eight years to create a new execution
protocol.
"From
the moment it announced the protocol on July 25, 2019, the government
has rushed the process in order to carry out executions without
meaningful judicial review of the legality and constitutionality of the
new execution procedures," said Cate Stetson, a lawyer for the inmates.
A federal appeals court reversed the district court.
1 comment:
Rope is cheap, easily available and reusable. In fact a proper hanging rope is supposed to be pre-stretched. Last I heard they still have a dry well at San Quentin where they stretch hanging ropes for the state of Utah. If you stretch them it takes the spring out so they are less likely to pull the head off. That is considered tacky and bad form.
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