JURIST - Paper Chase: Supreme Court blocks Mississippi lethal injection execution

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Supreme Court blocks Mississippi lethal injection execution Mike Rosen-Molina at 7:26 PM ET

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] granted a stay of execution [order, PDF] to a convicted murderer on Mississippi’s death row Tuesday, pending the Court’s decision on whether to grant certiorari in the case. Earl Wesley Berry was scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday night; his was the third stay granted by the justices since they agreed last month in Baze v. Rees (07-5439) [docket; cert. petition] to hear a challenge to the use of lethal injections [JURIST news archive] as a form of “cruel and unusual punishment.” Experts say that the stay may amount to a de facto nationwide moratorium on the death penalty.

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