Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

High court halts execution

|
|
 
  
Published: Oct. 30, 2007 at 10:55 PM

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday stopped the state of Mississippi from using lethal injection to execute a death row inmate.

Acting moments before Earl W. Berry was to have been put to death, the nation's highest court said without explanation that its stay will remain in effect until it reviews an appeal filed Monday by his attorneys. The court said on its Web site that Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented.

Berry was convicted of killing a 56-year-old woman 20 years ago and has been on death row ever since.

The Supreme Court provided no indication of when it will review his appeal, but it most likely will not happen before the high court decides a Kentucky case dealing with how judges should evaluate claims that lethal injections can amount to cruel and unusual punishment, The New York Times reported. The Kentucky case is to be heard by the justices in January.

Topics: Antonin Scalia, High Court, Justices Antonin Scalia
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Family forced to flee their apartment after their upstairs neighbors start shooting into the floor...
Oh the dewmanity
Ladies mount your poles. The RNC is coming
If you ever did win the lottery, would you give it away or surprise people with it in fun ways?
Criminal Pro-tip: when you steal someone's credit card, don't use your own grocery club card on...
The 21 absolute worst things in the world (not a slideshow). Bonus: #21