Supreme Court says the execution of Alabama inmate can go forward hours after it was called off - CNN

But the court's action came after Price's death warrant expired in Alabama at midnight central time Thursday.

This means that Alabama will have to apply to the state courts for a new execution date for the inmate before he can be put to death.

A federal appeals court had agreed to stay Price's execution earlier Thursday, and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall asked the Supreme Court to lift the stay and go forward with the execution.

Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by the three other liberal justices on the high court, penned a furious dissent. "Should anyone doubt that death sentences in the United States can be carried out in an arbitrary way, let that person review the following circumstances as they have been presented to our Court this evening," Breyer wrote.

Price had argued that Alabama's lethal injection protocol would cause him severe pain and asked that the state use lethal gas as an alternative. Two lower courts agreed Thursday to put the execution on hold.

But after Alabama petitioned the Supreme Court, the majority agreed to lift the stay of execution. The court said that Price had waited too long to make his claim.

In the unsigned order, the majority said that death row inmates in Alabama had the choice back in 2018 to elect to "be executed via nitrogen hypoxia" but that Price did not do so.

"He then waited until February 2019 to file this action and submitted additional evidence today, a few hours before his scheduled execution time," the majority held.

In his dissent, Breyer said that the case had become tangled in procedural matters and that two lower courts had agreed to put the execution on hold in an attempt to understand better the circumstances of the case.

Breyer said that he had asked his colleagues to take no action until Friday when the justices could discuss the issue at their regularly scheduled closed-door conference. But, he said, the majority refused and in doing so it "overrides the discretionary judgment of not one, but two lower courts."

"To proceed in this matter in the middle of the night without giving all Members of this Court the opportunity for discussion tomorrow morning, is I believe, unfortunate," he said.

"Alabama will soon subject Price to a death that he alleges will cause him severe pain and needless suffering."

The angry dissent, issued at 2:51 ET a.m. Friday, comes as the justices have already been feuding openly about the death penalty. Last week, a 5-4 court cleared the way for the execution of Missouri inmate Russell Bucklew, who had made a similar argument as Price.

In that case, Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the conservatives on the court, held that the Eight Amendment "does not demand the avoidance of all risk of pain" in carrying out executions.

In the Price case, Marshall, the Alabama attorney general, argued that the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals should not have granted a stay of execution, particularly because Price had waited too late to make his claim. In briefs to the Supreme Court, the attorney general said that courts should not "reward litigants for dilatory tactics."

According to the state, Price working with an accomplice, wielded a sword and a knife in 1991 and stabbed Bill Lynn, a minister, to death.

"On December 22, 1991, Bill Lynn was wrapping Christmas gifts for his grandchildren when he was ambushed outside his home, slashed and stabbed with a sword dozens of times," Marshall said in a statement.

"His killer has dodged his death sentence for the better part of three decades by employing much the same strategy he has pursued tonight -- desperately clinging to legal maneuverings to avoid facing the consequences of his heinous crime."

CNN's Madeline Holcombe contributed to this report

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/12/politics/christopher-lee-price-execution-supreme-court/index.html

2019-04-12 11:39:00Z
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