Supreme Court temporarily blocks Alabama execution of man convicted of three murders
Source: Reuters
SUPREME COURT | Thu Jun 8, 2017 | 8:08pm EDT
Supreme Court temporarily blocks Alabama execution of man convicted of three murders
By David Beasley
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked Alabama's execution of a man for the 1994 murders of three fast-food workers during a late-night robbery.
Alabama had planned to put Robert Melson, 46, to death by lethal injection on Thursday evening at its death chamber in Atmore. If the execution goes ahead, it will be the 13th this year in the United States and the second in Alabama in 2017.
"Upon consideration of the application of counsel for the applicant, it is ordered that execution of the sentence of death is hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the court," stated a document signed by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and released on Thursday evening.
Lawyers for Melson have tried to halt his execution, arguing that a drug in the state's lethal injection mixture has been linked to troubled executions in Alabama, Arizona and Oklahoma, where inmates could be seen twisting on death chamber gurneys.
[font size=1]
-snip-[/font]
Read more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alabama-execution-idUSKBN18Z1AT