5-4 Supreme Court clears the way for Alabama execution

[Polybius]

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

[BeckyDem]

1. How sad to be blood thirsty.

[George II]

2. Disgusting, hateful, and murderous. Hope Kavanaugh had a few beers to celebrate.

[Dial H For Hero]

3. He shot a man in the neck who'd stopped to help him on the road, then went to a party where he

mocked his victim's dying spasms.

Good riddance.

[raising2moredems]

10. Why does he get a quick exit from earth?

I for one think life in prison with no chance for parole is a far better punishment. I am not anti-death penalty but there are very few circumstances where I think it is the consequences for the action. The death penalty is not a deterrent. And soon there will be no source of the chemicals needed for lethal injection.

[Dial H For Hero]

12. Given how few of those sentenced to life in prison kill themselves,

it would seem those in the position to experience such punishment disagree. As for the lack of chemicals, just switch to nitrogen hypoxia. Problem solved.

[jmowreader]

18. No. Firing squad.

Juries would be less inclined to send someone off to be shot than to die from too much nitrogen.

[PJMcK]

4. How do SCOTUS justices do this?!

Imagine making an affirmative decision to have someone put to death.

We live in a barbaric society.

[monkeyman1]

9. go live in N.K. & then tell me we live in a barbaric society ??

you people live in a bubble ?

[PJMcK]

14. "You people"?

Although there are other societies that are barbaric doesn't mean the United States needs to be that way, too. Aren't we supposed to set higher standards?

The death penalty is an abomination and I'm appalled that you can't see that.

Your post is insulting.

[moriah]

17. You're setting a damn low bar, there.

It's like me telling my most recent stepfather he was better to my mother than my biological father -- who did horrific things she didn't even want to tell me about to her (but she'd told him).

The stepfather I'm talking about is also the one I had to talk into putting a gun down when he wasn't listening to my mother -- he was drunk and angry at someone else, but his booger picker was on the bang button and she was covered by the muzzle.

Setting such low bars doesn't help anyone.

[JohnSJ]

5. Sirota, gray, West, Sarandon, etc. have blood on their hands for encouraging people not

to vote for Hillary in the general election in 2016

[70sEraVet]

6. Apparently, the history of executions in Alabama by lethal injection is pretty grotesque

I would call a 13 hour execution, where the victim was coughing and heaving, "not anesthetized at any point during the agonizingly long procedure", an exercise in torture rather than a 21st century execution.
"John Palombi, an attorney with the Federal Defenders Program, said his group advised inmates to request the uncertainties of nitrogen gas over what he called the known "torture" of Alabama's three-drug cocktail. They had a June 30 deadline to make a choice."

https://www.al.com/news/2018/08/lethal_injection_or_gas_alabam.html

[TigressDem]

11. 13 hour execution? Ugh. Better off with a firing squad or guillotine instead. nt

[70sEraVet]

16. Oh, crap. I just re-read the link I posted. 13 MINUTE execution!

A little embarrassed - 767 minutes worth of embarrassment.

[UGADawg]

7. 5 of the 6 Catholics on the court.....

voted for the death penalty. This is against what my Catholic priest says is the church;s position. Yes Gorsich is Catholic.

[maxsolomon]

8. Extremely valid point.

But their task is to interpret the legality of the execution, not its morality.

[kaotikross]

13. Pretty slick

Dude tried to go out doing whippets. Too bad he didn't succeed

[dingosatemyusername]

15. nitrogen is not nitrous oxide