Court blocks two Florida executions; bishops had asked for stays

Published: 2006-02-01

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CNS) -- The Supreme Court stayed the execution of a Florida death row inmate for the second time in a week Jan. 31. In the cases of Clarence Edward Hill and Arthur Dennis Rutherford, the court agreed to consider whether execution by lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. The attorney for 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 Jan. 23. 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. Florida's Catholic bishops had been among those asking Gov. Jeb Bush to stay the executions of Hill and Rutherford.

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