After the Supreme Court issued a temporary stay Thursday evening that prevented the execution of an Alabama man, a 4-4 split-court decision allowed the convicted killer’s execution to proceed.
A replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court would have cast the decisive vote in determining whether Ronald Bert Smith, Jr., lived or died.
The government rescheduled its killing of Smith, convicted in the 1994 death of convenience store clerk Casey Wilson, to reportedly 9:45 p.m. CST from 6 p.m., because of the high court’s actions.
Justice Clarence Thomas issued multiple temporary stays on Thursday evening so the court could review Smith’s request. Upon review, the court denied the stay on a split vote with the court’s four liberals—Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Steven Breyer, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg—stating that they would have granted the stay. If President Obama’s pending Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland were seated on the bench, the liberal bloc’s failed effort may have succeeded.
During Smith’s trial, the jury recommended a life sentence, but the judge ordered a death sentence because of the judge’s view that the murder was an “execution-style slaying.”
In an appeal denied by the 11th Circuit Court, Smith challenged Alabama’s method of execution as cruel and unusual under the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. Smith took issue with the drugs being used in his lethal injection execution.
Whether President-elect Trump will select a Supreme Court nominee that would have ruled in a way to change the outcome of Smith’s execution is unclear. While campaigning for president, Trump told Fox News he thought the death penalty “should be brought back strong.”
