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Medellin Executed After Supreme Court Ruling

By Douglas A. Berman

Yesterday, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court denied Jose Medellin's application for a stay of execution.  Medellin was executed soon thereafter.  There continues to be an extraordinary degree of coverage of the story, including a comprehensive write-up by SCOTUSblog, available here. Among the other noteworthy features of the decision was the filing of four separate dissents by Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer.  Each gave separate reasons for his or her vote to grant the application for a stay of execution.  As Justice Breyer observed, only four votes are needed to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari; but in the context of a death case, a fifth vote is necessary to stay the execution.  Justice Breyer found it "particularly disappointing that no Member of the majority has proved willing to provide a courtesy vote for a stay" in order to consider the Solicitor General's as-yet-unfiled views...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 06, 2008 (boomark / email).