The Supreme Court decided Wednesday to allow the execution of an Alabama man, vacating a federal appeals court’s injunction of the execution.
An 11th Circuit panel halted the execution of Jeffery Lynn Borden, a convicted killer on death row for more than 20 years, so a lower court judge could hold a hearing about Alabama’s three-drug execution method.
Borden has been on death row 22 years and was convicted of the murders of Cheryl Borden, his ex-wife, and her father Roland Harris on Christmas Eve. His execution is scheduled for Thursday night.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals last month imposed the injunction and ordered the district court to hold a hearing on Borden’s and several other death row inmates claims that the state’s three-drug cocktail used for executions is unconstitutional.
A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court’s justices ruled that the injunction was not needed and vacated the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals’ halt of the execution. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
