The Supreme Court said Friday it will allow Alabama to follow through with the execution of Christopher Lee Price, a death row inmate convicted of a sword-and-dagger slaying of a pastor in 1991, overriding a federal judge’s halt of the execution.
The 5-4 ruling, however, came just nearly two hours after Price’s death warrant was set to expire, 12 a.m. Friday. Even though the execution was approved by the nation’s highest court, the state of Alabama must now reapply to state courts for a new execution date, a process likely to draw out Price’s execution for several more weeks.
Price, 46, had appealed to federal courts over Alabama’s use of lethal injection, saying he asked the state to use nitrogen gas. The inmate claims that lethal injection could potentially be excruciatingly painful if botched. Both a district judge and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on his execution so that the courts could fully consider Price’s demands.
Arguments over Price’s death sentence, the fourth death penalty case this year before the Supreme Court, has only highlighted the divide among the Justices on the issue since Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the court consolidated the conservative majority. In all cases, the conservative-leaning justices have favored stopping death row inmates from using legal maneuvers and appeals to delay their death. The liberal-leaning justices have shown a preference to defer to lower courts.
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a scathing dissent against the ruling, arguing that the courts have a fundamental responsibility to err on the side of caution, particularly in sensitive cases such as the death penalty.
“Should anyone doubt that death sentences in the United States can be carried out in an arbitrary way, let that person review the following circumstances as they have been presented to our Court this evening,” Breyer wrote in the dissent released at 3 a.m. Friday.
“To proceed in this matter in the middle of the night without giving all Members of this Court the opportunity for discussion tomorrow morning, is I believe, unfortunate,” he said. “Alabama will soon subject Price to a death that he alleges will cause him severe pain and needless suffering.”
The majority, however, argued that Price and his legal team waited too long to file the appeal.
“He then waited until February 2019 to file this action and submitted additional evidence today, a few hours before his scheduled execution time,” the majority argued, concurring with the determination of Alabama state officials.
The state of Alabama allowed the use of nitrogen gas as an alternative to lethal injection in its executions in 2018. As stipulated in the law, death row inmates have a 30-day window to petition for the use of nitrogen. State officials argue that Price missed the window when he petitioned for the use of nitrogen.
