Supreme Court won't let Justice Dept. immediately resume federal executions after hiatus

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Fri Dec 6, 2019, 08:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Washington Post



The Supreme Court on Friday refused to let the Justice Department immediately resume federal executions, denying the government’s request to bypass a lower-court ruling that the department likely exceeded.The court’s action puts on hold a series of executions that the government had planned for next week and next month.

When the Justice Department announced in July its plans to resume federal executions, Attorney General William P. Barr said in a statement that “we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”

The department also unveiled a new lethal injection protocol, one that involves a single drug — pentobarbital — rather than the three-drug procedure it had previously used. It planned to use this protocol in five executions scheduled for December and January, the federal government’s first since 2003. But last month, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the District of Columbia issued an injunction blocking four federal executions scheduled in December and January. (The fifth execution, also scheduled for this period, was separately stayed by another court for different reasons.)

Chutkan wrote that she was halting the executions to allow the inmates to proceed with their arguments that the new lethal-injection protocol “very likely exceeds” powers granted by the Federal Death Penalty Act. Under that act, she wrote, federal executions must be carried out “in the manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence is imposed.” If the state does not have the death penalty, a court must select another state that has one, wrote Chutkan, who was nominated by President Barack Obama.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-wont-let-justice-dept-immediately-resume-federal-executions-after-hiatus/2019/12/06/7103d8e6-1773-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html

---

Original article and headline -

Supreme Court won’t let Justice Dept. resume executions for now. Death row inmates are challenging a new lethal-injection protocol.

By Washington Post Staff
Dec. 6, 2019 at 6:57 p.m. EST

A federal judge in Washington had issued an injunction blocking four federal executions scheduled in December and January. A fifth execution, also scheduled for this period, was stayed by another court.
The federal government hasn’t executed anyone since 2003.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2019/12/06/supreme-court-wont-let-justice-dept-resume-executions-for-now-death-row-inmates-are-challenging-a-new-lethal-injection-protocol/

[bucolic_frolic]

1. How about Barr learning to carry out the laws imposed by the Constitution?

[PSPS]

2. The sadists will haz a sad. No woody for them at xmas, I guess.

[Marthe48]

3. Let convicts die in prison

Maybe it would be cheaper if the convicted criminals didn't have to appeal their death penalty. Maybe some wrongly convicted accused would be exonerated. Better to have another chance in this life than none.