The Supreme Court late Thursday issued a last-minute stay on the Alabama execution of Thomas A. Douglas, the seventh time he has avoided capital punishment.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who was the justice assigned to the 11th Circuit Court, which includes Alabama, said in an order that he was halting the execution until he or the other justices issued another order. The justices will now have more time to consider the questions Douglas raised about his method of execution, lethal injection.
The state had planned to use midazolam, a drug that has been used in at least three other executions in recent years that have gone awry.
Four other justices had voted in favor to stay the execution, but without explanation. Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito voted to deny it.
The 11th Circuit Court and the Alabama Department of Corrections had already arranged an informal agreement to delay Arthur’s execution earlier in the day. A temporary stay came around 9:30 p.m. Central time before the final stay around 11 p.m.
Arthur, now 74, was sentenced to death for the 1982 killing of Troy Wicker, who was the husband of a woman with whom Arthur had an affair.
Seventeen executions have taken place in the United States this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Arthur’s was one of four executions scheduled through the end of the year.
