Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — the Supreme Court justice assigned to the 11th Circuit, which includes Alabama — said in an order shortly before 10:30 p.m. that he was halting the execution until he or the other justices issued another order. In September, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the state’s death penalty system was constitutional and unaffected by the Florida ruling. (Florida, meanwhile, rewrote its death penalty statute after the Supreme Court ruling, but the Florida Supreme Court struck down the new setup last month and said it is still unconstitutional.) The Supreme Court did not agree, and that inmate was executed in the first lethal injection in Alabama since 2013. The Supreme Court in May was also asked to weigh in after a federal appeals court stayed an execution in Alabama.

Source: Washington Post November 04, 2016 03:43 UTC