Suprisingly, Samuel Alito’s first vote as a Supreme Court justice was to stay the execution of a man that kidnapped, raped, and killed a 15 year-old girl.
When President George Bush nominated Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court he was billed as an arch-conservative. But in his first decision last night, the new justice confounded expectations by voting to stay an execution in Missouri.
A few hours after being sworn in at the White House, where Mr Bush praised him for his “steady demeanor, careful judgment and complete integrity,” Justice Samuel Alito joined the majority in a 6-3 vote to block the execution of Michael Taylor, a murderer, by lethal injection.
The decision will allow an appeals court to hear arguments by Taylor’s lawyers that all executions by lethal injection are unconstitutional. The US Constitution prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment”. Lethal injections sedate prisoners before collapsing their lungs and stopping their hearts.
I don’t remember the death penalty coming up in the hearings. I hadn’t considered the possibility that Alito might present us with a vote against the death penalty. And, actually, that still remains to be determined. The stay is for the purpose of allowing an appeals court to decide whether lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
It’s possible that Alito is opposed to the death penalty. The court had originally signed off on the execution, but Alito, who was assigned responsibility for handling appeals from Missouri, brought it back before the court. Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas voted to kill him. The rest voted to let him appeal.
