Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Too Early for a 5-4 Ruling? Nope. (Updated)

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for an Arizona execution, splitting 5-4 along ideological lines, see here.  (Thanks to Mike Sacks for this link.)  Further background on the case is here and here (drug to be used in lethal injection questioned; from UK).

The defendant's name, Jeffrey Landrigan, may ring a bell for some Court watchers.  In 2007, the Court heard and decided an earlier appeal in his case, see here (re: ineffective assistance of counsel).  Landrigan also lost that case 5-4.  The "5" were the same then and now: Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito.  Ginsburg and Breyer were in dissent, then and now, joined in 2007 by Souter and Stevens, and in 2010, by their replacements, Sotomayor and Kagan.