5-4 Supreme Court clears the way for Alabama execution

Source: CNN

(CNN)A 5-4 Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for the execution of death row inmate Matthew Reeves by lethal injection, reversing a lower court opinion.

Reeves was executed at Alabama's Holman prison less than two hours later.

The lower court had agreed to block the execution because Reeves sought to be executed by an alternate method: nitrogen gas. But the justices granted Alabama's request to reinstate the execution in an after-hours order Thursday.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by the court's three liberals, would have denied Alabama's request. Justice Elena Kagan, writing only for Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, said in the brief order that the majority should have abided by the lower court's decision.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/27/politics/supreme-court-death-penalty-matthew-reeves-alabama/index.html