UPDATED — Based on precedents finding lethal injection to be cruel where a vein cannot be secured in elderly, infirm patients, the Eleventh Circuit has granted a temporary stay of execution, while briefing occurs on the factual issues — which include that Mr. Smith’s vein likely cannot be found, even in recent medical exams. This will likely go back to the Supremes tomorrow. But I’d not expect a new death warrant now, for several weeks. Here is his cogent brief to get the stay. Good news. End update.
Amy Gou — ably writing, again at The SCOTUS Blog has it all down cold — in unsparing prose.
In just about four hours, at around 5 PM this evening, Alabama will ignore a lawfully-empaneled jury’s vote, in a capital murder case — and despite 11-1 saying he should live on… Alabama will execute him, solely on a single local (elected; political; GOP) judge’s say so.
I gather in ruby red Alabama, the Constitution’s guarantee of a jury of one’s peers, in capital cases… is a mere “guideline”. If inconvenient, the Constitution’s 240 year old commands may be swept aside — if GOP frothers decide… they’d like to do so, even on a blood-thirsty whim, despite a jury’s clear and lawful instruction — for mercy:
…By a vote of 11 to 1, the jury in Smith’s 1996 capital trial recommended that he be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The trial judge overrode that decision, however, and sentenced him to death. Alabama was the last state in the United States to permit judicial override in capital cases.
It outlawed the practice in 2017, but not retroactively. Smith argued that his execution, greenlit by a practice that is no longer permitted anywhere in the country, would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments….
That the Supremes did not summarily overturn this travesty is proof of what Tangerine’s hard right wing has wrought: fascism, in the face of a strict Constitutional command. Damn.
And that makes three, just this week — from the “Putin/Xi/Taliban” wing of the Supremes (six justices, in all).
Meanwhile, John Hinderaker whines because the Minnesota (Democratic) Governor’s comms aide used harsh language — in a tweet to a Republican Lt. Governor. Grow a working forebrain, John. The above is… just a second… murder. Please explain the GOP position here. Use harsh language if you like. Just… damn.
नमस्ते
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