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30 days is the minimum legal notice required. Not sure they have to wait to issue a date. If they do it doesn't matter, he isn't going to survive 2019. SCOTUS has already made it clear where they stand here. I'd expect a stay to be issued again, but the stay will likely be in advance - allowing take two to go like Torrey McNabb instead of Jeffrey Borden.
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SCOTUS made clear where they stood - presenting the issues that both inferior courts found meritorious in light of a less imminent execution could remove the dilatory nature in the eyes of at least one justice.
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True, but I think the fact that he can't prove nitrogen would be less painful than lethal injection, along with the fact that midazolam is constitutional, will leave the majority less than swayed when he hasn't proven he has a significant likelihood of success. This panel has found "merit" where this is none multiple times. There's also the fact that nitrogen is not readily available for the state to use, and that SCOTUS denied his less dilatory stay request in addition to the last minute one.
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Alabama seeks new execution date for inmate spared by clock
MONTGOMERY, ALA. — Alabama on Monday sought a new execution date for an inmate spared last week when the clock struck midnight before a divided U.S. Supreme Court said his lethal injection could proceed.
Justices on Friday lifted a stay that had blocked the execution of 46-year-old Christopher Lee Price, but the order came about 90 minutes after the death warrant setting the execution date automatically expired at midnight.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's office asked the state Supreme Court to quickly schedule a new lethal injection on April 25 or May 2 in the "interests of justice." The state asked to set aside a rule normally requiring 30 days' notice.
"Price has already had his execution set and erroneously delayed, he has been given more notice than other inmates in his position and more than enough notice to satisfy concerns of fairness and due process," the state wrote in the motion.
Price was convicted of murder in the 1991 stabbing death of pastor Bill Lynn.
A federal judge on Thursday stayed Price's execution scheduled for that evening to consider his challenge to the humaneness of the state's lethal injection procedure. Price had asked to be put to death by breathing nitrogen gas, a method the state has authorized but not yet used.
With a stay in place, Alabama announced about 30 minutes before midnight that it could not carry out the execution that night. The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 early Friday morning to vacate the stay, but the execution warrant had expired at midnight.
The majority order said Price had missed a deadline for selecting nitrogen as his preferred execution method and noted that his claim was filed late in the process.
In a dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer admonished court conservatives for overruling two lower court stays "in the middle of the night" without discussing it further at a morning conference.
"What is at stake in this case is the right of a condemned inmate not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment," Breyer wrote.
https://www.wral.com/alabama-seeks-n...lock/18328327/
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If the execution is scheduled within less than 30 days, I think we can expect more court fights over that, and probably eventually another delay..
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Hmmm. This could actually be interesting. I'd like to see them err on the side of caution and do 30 days. But perhaps subsequent death warrants can be expedited in AL? In TN, Zagorski only got 10 days notice the second time. Texas law I believe allows less than 90 days notice on subsequent dates, but I have yet to see that happen.
At the end of the day it's a state matter, not a federal one so I doubt the feds would bother on those grounds. FL requires 30 days notice but I've seen Rick Scott give less notice than that before with no problem.
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I think only the state court could issue a stay for such a reason, and in Alabama I think they are the ones who set execution dates? I don't think a federal court can issue.a stay for that reason.
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I suppose they could try to argue that the state ignoring its own laws violates due process. If it gets stayed for such a reason though, SCOTUS might be sympathetic to the state and let it slide because they found the original stay erroneous. Either way, he’ll be gone by the end of May.
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Federal court sets trial date in Alabama death row inmate’s case
By Ivana Hrynkiw
al.com
A federal judge has set a June trial date for an Alabama death row inmate on his claim he should be allowed to die by nitrogen hypoxia, but said she won’t call off an execution if one is set before trial.
Christopher Price, 46, was set to die by lethal injection at William Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore on April 11. About two hours before the scheduled execution, Southern District of Alabama Chief Judge Kristi DuBose issued a stay of execution for 60 days and ordered the state to submit evidence in contradiction to Price’s contention the three-drug lethal injection protocol will cause or is likely to cause severe pain. Price was asking to be executed by the newly approved method, nitrogen hypoxia. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled the execution could go forward, but their ruling came after the Alabama Attorney General’s Office had already called it off for the night.
Monday, DuBose issued an order setting a trial date for Price’s case. The non-jury trial will be held June 10 at 9:00 a.m., and the judge also set deadlines for other pre-trial issues.
The federal case does not hinder or prevent the Alabama Supreme Court from setting a new execution date for Price, however, and DuBose wrote that if the state court does set an execution date before the trial date, she will not stay the execution, pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.
Lawyers from the AG’s Office have already requested the Alabama Supreme Court set a new execution date, but the court has yet to rule.
Price was convicted in the 1991 robbery and slaying of a Fayette County minister, Bill Lynn. Lynn was killed days before Christmas that year, while he was wrapping presents for his grandchildren. His wife, Bessie Lynn, was injured in the attack but survived.
Bessie Lynn and five other relatives were present Thursday, prepared to witness Price’s execution.
https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2...ates-case.html
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New execution date set in 1991 stabbing death of minister
Mobile, Ala. (WPMI) — The Alabama Supreme Court on Monday set May 30, 2019 as the execution date for Christopher Lee Price.
Price's scheduled execution of April 11, 2019 was stayed for 60 days by the federal district court in Mobile less than 6 hours before he was set to die.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals responded later that same day by issuing its own stay. The Supreme Court vacated both stays clearing the way for the execution to take place but the order came after midnight, the time the death warrant expired.
Price was convicted in 1991 stabbing death of Fayette County minister Bill Lynn.
https://mynbc15.com/news/local/new-e...th-of-minister