Stay of Execution
Though the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied Berry's request to stop his execution (citing exceeded time limits to challenge the constitutionality of lethal injection), the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a stay of execution minutes prior to Berry's scheduled execution at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. This effectively delayed but did not commute Berry's sentence. The order to delay execution was due to a pending Kentucky case before the court regarding the constitutionality of lethal injection.
Dissenting justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Antonin Scalia noted that they would have denied the application to put off the execution which was scheduled for 6 pm. The Court's delay order came about 15 minutes before Berry was to be put to death by lethal injection.
Read more about this topic: Earl Wesley Berry
Famous quotes containing the words stay and/or execution:
“Don’t you stay at home of evenings?
Don’t you love a cushioned seat
In a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)
“I will soon be going out to shape all the singing tomorrows.”
—Gabriel Péri, French Communist leader. Letter, July 1942, written shortly before his execution by the Germans. Quoted in New York Times (April 11, 1943)