Free Republic

It’s not entirely fair to judge a Supreme Court justice based on his first vote. Urgent matters arise unexpectedly, and the court must sometimes act quickly. Still, it’s worth paying special attention to Justice Neil Gorsuch’s vote late Thursday night to deny a stay of execution for Ledell Lee, an Arkansas man who was sentenced to death in 1995 for murdering a woman named Debra Reese with a tire thumper. After Justice Gorsuch, along with the four other conservative justices, denied his final appeal without explanation, Mr. Lee, who maintained his innocence until the end, was executed by lethal injection....

A member of the Oklahoma House is drafting a resolution seeking the impeachment of state Supreme Court justices who granted a delay of execution to two death-row inmates. Republican state Rep. Mike Christian told The Associated Press on Wednesday that five justices engaged in a “willful neglect of duty.” …

A judge has temporarily stayed a Georgia inmate’s scheduled execution Monday, after attorneys raised questions involving the state’s supply of execution drugs. … It wasn’t the first time (Warren Lee) Hill’s scheduled execution has been halted by a challenge to Georgia’s execution method. Last July, a previous execution date was put on hold by an earlier challenge to the state’s plan to change from a three-drug injection to a single dose of pentobarbital. …

An attorney for four-time convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams, who is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday at San Quentin State Prison, filed an emergency request Saturday night with the state Supreme Court for a stay of execution. (snip) Williams has consistently denied he committed the murders, although he has apologized for his role as a co-founder of the Crips, a gang considered responsible for numerous murders in Los Angeles and beyond. Williams' convictions have been upheld by the California Supreme Court, a federal district court judge in Los Angeles, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the...

Killer of gay man gets stay Counsel in appeal calls prior state-appointed attorney incompetent 05/14/2002 By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News An inmate condemned for the murder of a gay man in Tyler won a reprieve Monday from a federal appeals court a day before he was to be executed. His attorneys argued that a previous state-appointed attorney was incompetent. Henry Dunn Jr.'s scheduled Tuesday evening lethal injection was put off with an order from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, said Mike Viesca, a spokesman for the Texas attorney general's office. Mr....