One Florida execution stayed as Supreme Court agrees to hear case

Published: 2006-01-26

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CNS) -- With a dramatic last-minute stay of execution Jan. 24, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a Florida inmate's claim that execution by lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. The attorney for Clarence Edward Hill said his client was strapped to a gurney with an intravenous line in his arm when Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a temporary stay of execution. The following day the full court issued a brief order saying it would hear Hill's claims that the drugs Florida uses in executions cause pain, making the procedure cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional. In the order accepting Hill's case, the Supreme Court set up a schedule for briefs to be filed indicating it would come before the court in April, with a ruling likely by the end of the term in early summer.

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