Alabama delays execution after 5-4 Supreme Court rules it can continue

Lethal Injection chamber
(Image credit: California Dept. of Corrections & Rehabilitation via Getty Images)

Alabama called off the execution of Alan Miller on Thursday night, hours after the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, allowed the death by lethal injection to proceed.

U.S. District Judge Austin Huffaker Jr. stayed the execution on Tuesday, ruling Alabama had to comply with Miller's request to be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia, as legally allowed in Alabama and two other states, It's "substantially likely" Miller "submitted a timely election form even though the state says that it does not have any physical record of a form," he wrote. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his ruling, but the Supreme Court vacated the injunction without explanation. The ruling fell mostly along ideological lines, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett voting with the court's three liberal justices to uphold the stay.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.