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.
