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| High Court Clashes Over Death Row Appeals |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/26/2004 |
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Five times this month, the vote of one Supreme Court justice would have stopped the execution of a convicted killer who claimed it was unconstitutionally cruel to use chemicals to carry out a death sentence. The executions went forward, even though four of the nine high court justices wanted to grant at least a temporary reprieve. The 5-4 votes, all announced without comment by any of the justices, are the latest illustration of the deep rift on the court over capital punishment. Most remarkable, court watchers say, was the justices' silence in last-minute decisions to allow two states to move ahead with executions that lower courts had stopped. "Perhaps the court majority is trying to underscore that there's not about to be a national moratorium because lethal injections are unconstitutional," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that tracks capital punishment trends. Eric Freedman, a professor at Hofstra Law School, said under an 80-year tradition at the Supreme Court it takes the votes of four justices to hear someone's appeal, but five to stop an execution. For part of that time, the court had a gentleman's agreement that if four justices wanted to hear an inmate's appeal, a fifth justice would provide the crucial fifth vote. He said the latest series of 5-4 votes shows a problem in the system. Justices have been split 5-4 on other capital punishment issues, including whether to prohibit the executions of people who were juveniles when they committed crimes. A case from Missouri, in which juvenile executions were struck down, is to come up at the justices' closed door meeting. That case could be heard in the court's next term. Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer are the court's liberal wing. They are the four who have sought to block the executions. At issue in the latest string of appeals is a drug cocktail used in lethal injections. Some states won't let such a mixture be used to put down animals, because of concerns about unnecessary pain by the American Veterinary Medical Association. |
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