High court OKs lethal injections
Utah death row inmate disputed the method
A splintered Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday, approving the most widely used method of lethal injection.
Almost immediately, Virginia lifted its moratorium on the death penalty. Mississippi and Oklahoma said they would seek execution dates for convicted murderers, and other states were ready to follow.
In Utah, authorities said the ruling hasn't impacted the status of most of Utah's 10 death-row inmates.
But it could spell legal trouble for one.
"Does it change anything in Utah? No," said assistant Utah Attorney General Fred Voros.
Out of the 10 men currently under the sentence of death, Voros said only one has claimed lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.
Von Lester Taylor currently has appeals cases pending in both state and federal courts.
Voros said Wednesday's ruling shoots down Taylor's claim. "Our position is that he forfeited that claim because at sentencing he chose lethal injection over firing squad," Voros said, adding that the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that an inmate cannot choose his method of execution and then later come back to challenge it.
Deli was given a life sentence in prison. A jury sentenced Taylor to death in 1991.
The Utah Supreme Court has already upheld Taylor's sentence but he has since brought forward a 400-page petition raising new legal claims that he did not receive a fair trial.
Last February, a federal judge stayed Taylor's federal proceedings to allow his state claims to move forward through district court and on to the Utah Supreme Court for a second time.
The nearly seven-month halt in executions was brought on by the Supreme Court's decision to review Kentucky's lethal injection procedures, which are similar to those in roughly three dozen states. The break is the longest since a 17-month period ending in August 1982.
Voting 7-2, the conservative high court led by Chief Justice John Roberts rebuffed the latest assault on capital punishment, this time by foes focusing on methods rather than on the legality of the death penalty itself. Justice John Paul Stevens voted with the majority on the question of lethal injections but said for the first time that he now believes the death penalty is unconstitutional.
Recent comments
I realize that this is just a summary, but the reporter doesn't seem…
Read the opinions | April 17, 2008 at 7:49 a.m.
Ok...so all these inmates are whining about suffering from the 3-…
frogqueen | April 17, 2008 at 6:56 a.m.
