Supreme Court Stays Execution of Tommy Arthur in Alabama

The U.S. Supreme Court has stayed the execution of Tommy Arthur, who was scheduled to be executed in Alabama at 6:00 p.m. Central Time on November 3. Around 10:30 p.m. Eastern, the Court first issued a temporary stay of execution through Circuit Justice Clarence Thomas “pending further order” of the Court. Anticipating a second ruling by the Court, Alabama continued preparations for the execution. Then, just before midnight in Washington, the Court issued a full stay to permit it to consider a petition for writ of certiorari Arthur had filed earlier in the day. Arthur’s lawyers had filed two stay applications and petitions for writs of certiorari. One petition sought review of the Alabama Supreme Court’s summary dismissal of his challenge to the constitutionality of Alabama’s death penalty statute under the Supreme Court’s January 2016 decision in Hurst v. Florida. Hurst struck down Florida’s death penalty statute because it required a judge, rather than a jury, to find critical facts that were a prerequisite to imposing the death penalty, and Arthur had argued that Alabama’s statute suffered from the same defect. The other petition sought review of the denial of Arthur’s lethal-injection challenge by a divided 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In its opinion, that court had ruled that Arthur had not met the burden imposed by the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Glossip v. Gross of showing that an alternative method of execution was available to Alabama because the firing squad — his proposed alternative — was not “readily available” under Alabama law. The dissent wrote: “By misreading an Alabama statute, the Majority creates a conflict between the claim and state law. The Majority then resolves that faux conflict in favor of state law, taking the unprecedented step of ascribing to states the power to legislatively foreclose constitutional relief. These missteps nullify countless prisoners’ Eighth Amendment right to a humane execution.” The Supreme Court granted Mr. Arthur’s stay application in the lethal-injection case. Four Justices voted to stay the execution, with Chief Justice Roberts providing the fifth vote “as a courtesy.” Justices Thomas and Alito dissented. Without the time constraints imposed by the death warrant, the Justices can now consider whether to grant review in the case. This was the seventh time Mr. Arthur’s execution has been stayed.

(K. Faulk, “Tommy Arthur avoids execution 7th time: Supreme Court issues stay in Alabama murder-for-hire,” Birmingham News (AL.com), November 4, 2016; M. Berman, “Supreme Court halts scheduled execution of Alabama death row inmate,” The Washington Post, November 4, 2016; T. Connor, “Supreme Court Delays Inmate Tommy Arthur’s Seventh Execution Date,” NBC News, Nov. 4, 2016.) Read the Supreme Court order here. See Lethal Injection and U.S. Supreme Court.