Court appoints lawyer in Oklahoma death penalty case

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The Supreme Court on Friday morning appointed a former clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts to defend a ruling by an Oklahoma court leaving in place the conviction and death sentence of Richard Glossip – even after the state’s attorney general agreed that they should be set aside.

The justices agreed to hear Glossip’s case on Monday, after considering the case at 11 consecutive conferences since late September 2023. Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1997 … Read the rest

Justices were not asked to swear under penalty of perjury that they didn’t leak Dobbs

Justices were not asked to swear under penalty of perjury that they didn’t leak <em>Dobbs</em>

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Gail Curley, the Supreme Court’s marshal, said on Friday that she spoke with the justices as part of her investigation into the Dobbs leak but that the justices – unlike court employees – were not asked to swear under penalty of perjury that they were not responsible for the leak.

In a brief, prepared statement released by the court, Curley indicated that she “followed up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the Justices or their spouses.”

Curley’s … Read the rest

Court declines to halt execution of Alabama man whose jury voted against death penalty

Court declines to halt execution of Alabama man whose jury voted against death penalty

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In a brief order with no recorded dissents, the Supreme Court refused to block the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, a 57-year-old inmate who is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. EST on Thursday in Alabama. Smith was convicted for the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, whom he was hired to kill by her husband, Rev. Charles Sennett.

By a vote of 11 to 1, the jury in Smith’s 1996 capital trial recommended that he … Read the rest