U.S. Courts News Reporter
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The Supreme Court blocked the execution of Ruben Gutierrez, who was sentenced to die after 7 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday for the 1998 stabbing death of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in Brownsville, Tex. In a brief unsigned order released to reporters just after 6:30 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday night, the justices put Gutierrez’s execution on hold until they decide whether to take up his appeal.
Gutierrez has long maintained that he did not go into Harrison’s home on the … Read the rest
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday night refused to stay the execution of Johnny Johnson, scheduled for 6 p.m. CDT. The court’s liberal justices dissented from the decision to allow the execution to go forward, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor arguing that Johnson was entitled to a hearing to determine whether he is mentally competent to be executed. “There is no moral victory,” Sotomayor wrote, “in executing someone who believes Satan is killing him to bring about the end of the … Read the rest
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The Supreme Court put the execution of Richard Glossip on hold on Friday afternoon to give the justices time to consider the Oklahoma man’s appeals. Glossip was scheduled to be executed on May 18. The court’s brief unsigned order came four days after Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed a highly unusual brief supporting Glossip’s request to stay his execution. Drummond explained that state officials now believe that Glossip’s conviction should not stand and that it would be “unthinkable” … Read the rest