Court refuses Hill plea; execution carried out
on Sep 20, 2006 at 3:24 pm
UPDATE: Clarence E. Hill was executed Wednesday evening at a state prison in Starke, Fla. He was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m., according to news reports.
Dividing 5-4, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to delay the execution in Florida of Clarence E. Hill, thus clearing the way for the state to carry out the sentence around 6 p.m. this evening. The Court issued no opinion. The brief order noted that Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David H. Souter and John Paul Stevens would have granted a stay.
The Court acted on Hill’s stay application alone (06-A-301), and thus took no action on his pending cert petition, Hill v. McDonough (06-6545). If the execution goes forward under a death warrant signed by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, that will moot Hill’s appeal since that seeks an opportunity to challenge the method of lethal injection.
By denying the stay request, the Court leaves Hill without a remedy that the Court last June had ruled he could pursue: a civil rights challenge to the lethal injection protocol used in Florida. At the time the Court issued that ruling, it was aware that he had filed his delay request shortly before an execution was scheduled — the very issue that has now led the Eleventh Circuit Court to refuse to delay the execution further, after concluding that defense lawyers had engaged in delaying tactics.
Without an opinion from the Court, however, it is unclear whether the Court majority actually agreed with the Eleventh Circuit on its rationale. The practical result, though, was that the Eleventh Circuit denial of a stay stands, and the execution may now proceed.
It would have taken the votes of five Justices to grant a stay. An earlier post on HIll’s plea to the Court can be found here, containing links to the application and the petition for review.
