The U.S. Supreme Court this afternoon agreed to hear arguments in the death penalty case of Clarence Hill of Florida. Hill has contested the constitutionality of lethal injection.
HOWEVER…it is important to note that the Supreme Court is not considering the constitutionality of lethal injection per se. Rather, it is considering a) whether Hill may pursue his claim and b) whether his claim is covered by federal civil rights law.
If Hill prevails on one of those two points, he gets to proceed with the claim itself.
A good place to go to read about this stuff is Scotusblog.
2 comments:
Does this mean that court will grant stays to anyone scheduled for execution by lethal injection?
We expect a few executions to be halted but most will not be. We think it depends upon where a person is filing their appeal (i.e., which circuit court) and how far along their appeals are. It's all rather...arbitrary and capricious.
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