The Supreme Court tonight vacated the stay of execution an Arizona federal judge issued yesterday in the case of Jeffrey Landrigan. Landrigan was scheduled to be executed this morning using sodium thiopental that was manufactured by a company outside the U.S. which was not an FDA approved manufacturer of the drug.

Arizona appealed to the 9th Circuit, did not prevail, and the matter was referred to the full court later today. Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Bryer would have denied the state's request and kept the stay in place.

Arizona authorities are preparing the execution chamber now, so they can kill him within the 34 hour period set by the death warrant.

Here's what the order says (received by email, no link): [More...]

Last week we wrote about the impending Arizona execution of Jeffrey Landrigan. Landrigan alleged that the sodium thiopental Arizona planned to inject into Landrigan was not made by Hospira, Inc., the one U.S. company authorized to manufacture it. In other words, it came from a foreign source. He sought a stay and an order compelling the state to disclose the origin of the drug. The Arizona Supreme Court denied both requests.

With only 18 hours left before the execution, a federal judge today granted Landrigan a stay and ordered Arizona to immediately disclose the source of the drug. The court's 19 page ruling is here.

According to the Arizona Republic, the drug came comes from Great Britain. [More...]

Update: The Arizona Supreme Court has denied the requests for a stay of execution and to produce information about the drug's origin. The ruling is here.

At a court hearing in Arizona today to stay the execution of Jeffrey Landrigan set for next Tuesday, the Arizona Attorney General admitted that the sodium thiopental it planned to inject into Landrigan was not made by Hospira, Inc., the one U.S. company authorized to manufacture it. In other words, it came from a foreign source.

His lawyers argue that using the drug sodium thiopental that has expired or was obtained from an unreliable source may not work correctly, potentially subjecting Landrigan to cruel and unusual punishment through death by suffocation.

They want the Supreme Court to order the state to disclose the source of the drug..... prosecutors said they can’t identify the source because state law requires confidentiality for those involved with executions.

But, the prosecutor did acknowledge it didn't come from Hospira, which isn't currently producing the drug. And no other U.S. company is authorized to manufacture it. [More...]

Albert Brown will not be executed Thursday in California. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals directed Judge Jeremy Fogel to re-examine his decision last week allowing it to go forward.

The stay came a day after California officials announced that the state’s supply of sodium thiopental, a barbiturate used in executions, was good only until Friday, a revelation that seemed to shock the appellate panel. “It is incredible to think that the deliberative process might be driven by the expiration date of the execution drug,” the panel wrote.

The 9th Circuit said Judge Fogel did not have the authority to allow the inmate to choose his lethal cocktail: [More...]

California's executions have been on hold since 2006. A federal judge today cleared the way for them to resume. He said the problem regarding the method of injection is solved by allowing the inmate to choose between a one drug or three drug cocktail.

"Allowing a condemned inmate to make such a choice is consistent with Ninth Circuit authority in cases arising both in California and elsewhere," he wrote.

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Teresa Lewis was pronounced dead at 9:13 pm. Her last supper: fried chicken, peas and Dr. Pepper.

Teresa Lewis didn't pull the trigger. She confessed, pleaded guilty and cooperated with authorities. She had an IQ of 70, right on the border of mental retardation. She had no prior criminal record, and no prior history of violence. The triggermen in the murder got life without parole. Yet she was executed -- the first first female sentenced to death in Virginia since 1912.

The next time you hear a politician proclaim they are pro life, ask them to prove it by promising to vote to end the death penalty.

R.I.P: Our evolving standards of decency.

On Thursday, Teresa Lewis will be the first woman to be executed in Virginia since 1912. (Background here:)

Teresa Lewis didn't pull the trigger. She confessed, pleaded guilty and cooperated with authorities. She has an IQ of 70, right on the border of mental retardation. She has no prior criminal record, and no prior history of violence. The triggermen in the murder got life without parole.

The Supreme Court has denied her request for a stay of execution. Her August, 2010 petition for clemency, denied by VA Gov. Robert McDonnell, is here. Gov. McDonnell yesterday again refused to grant clemency.

The execution is scheduled for September 23, 2010, 9:00 p.m., Greensville Correctional Center, Jarratt, Virginia.

Teresa Lewis didn't pull the trigger. She confessed, pleaded guilty and cooperated with authorities. She has an IQ of 70, right on the border of mental retardation. She has no prior criminal record, and no prior history of violence. The triggermen in the murder got life without parole. Yet she's scheduled to die by lethal injection. She is the first female sentenced to death in Virginia since 1912.

John Grisham weighs in. A writer in the Sydney Morning Herald says Iran does not have a monopoly on barbarism and reminds the U.S. that humanity begins at home.

The execution is set for September 23. Save Teresa Lewis. More here.

British author Alan Shadrake, whose book Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice on the Dock, was recently released, has been detained in Singapore on charges including criminal defamation and contempt of court.

His book contained an interview with Darshan Singh, pictured above, the now retired head executioner at Singapore's Changi Prison.

The book also features interviews with local human rights activists, lawyers and former police officers on various cases involving capital punishment in the city-state, which carries out the death penalty by hanging.

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Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced his giving the go-ahead for Ronnie Lee Gardner's execution last night in real-time on Twitter.

What progress (not), we've moved from the Executioner's Song to the Executioner's Tweet. "Firing Squad" is now trending on Twitter. At least he didn't post a twit-pic.

What a big black eye for Utah and the U.S. As I wrote last night, even Vietnam outlawed death by firing squad this week.

Bump and Update: Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad just after midnight. He was dead at 12:20.

Bump and Update: The Supreme Court denied a stay Thursday Night. Justices Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens, would have granted the request for a stay. At 9:30 pm:

all communication from clergy, attorneys and others was cut off. Gardner continued watching movies at that point. He was 90 feet from the death chamber.

Barbarism is alive and well in the United States.

Barring a last minute reprieve, Ronnie Lee Gardner will be executed by a firing squad in Utah just after midnight. He has eaten his last meal and intends to fast until then. Here's how it will go down:

Ronnie Lee Gardner, his appeals exhausted after 25 years on daath row, has chosen the firing squad for his June 18 execution.

How is it carried out? From a TalkLeft post in 2003 quoting a news article no longer online:

....A hood will be put over the condemned man's head and a target will be pinned over his heart. The executioners will fire simultaneously from gun portals in a separate room at the inmate, seated in a chair about 30 feet away. One of the five rifles will contain a blank so that no one will know who fired the fatal shots.

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