Alabama judge says state will halt executions until after Supreme Court rules

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post

Alabama judge says state will halt executions until after Supreme Court rules
By Mark Berman March 20 at 6:09 PM

A federal judge said this week that Alabama will hold off on any executions until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on lethal injection in the coming months, making it the third state to halt capital punishment until the justices act.

The decision came as the state planned to execute two inmates over the next three months, with three other inmates potentially having execution dates set as well.

Because the lethal injection case that will be argued before the Supreme Court will touch on an execution protocol that uses a drug Alabama hopes to use, the outcome there will likely have a direct impact on such cases in Alabama, Chief Judge W. Keith Watkins of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama wrote in an order Thursday.

Alabama has 194 inmates on death row, according to the state’s Department of Corrections. That is the fourth-biggest death-row population in the country, trailing only California, Florida and Texas.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/03/20/alabama-judge-says-state-will-halt-executions-until-after-supreme-court-rules/

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(My emphasis.)

[Thor_MN]

1. So they will listen on the DP, but not on marriage equality...

Courts should not get to pick ala carte what they listen to from the Federal government.

I also note that "That is the fourth-biggest death-row population in the country, trailing only California, Florida and Texas." could easily mean that Alabama has the largest per capita death row population.

[Cryptoad]

2. seems the Federal judge in Mobile

has no nads or she would have already had the US Marshalls put some judges in jail.