Justice Sam Alito breaks ranks with Conservatives on very first vote...

[Laugh O. Grams]

What's to be made of this?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In his first day on the job, Justice Samuel Alito broke ranks Wednesday night with the Supreme Court's conservatives by refusing to allow Missouri to execute death-row inmate Michael Taylor.

Alito sided with five other liberal and moderate justices in rejecting a second request to allow the state of Missouri to execute Taylor.

The justices voted 6-3 Wednesday night to turn down the last-minute request for a midnight execution. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported allowing the execution to proceed.

Taylor was sentenced to death for the 1989 kidnapping, rape and stabbing death of 15-year-old Ann Harrison in Kansas City, Missouri.

An initial vote in the Taylor case came Wednesday afternoon, when all the justices rejected Missouri's effort to immediately end a stay of execution for Taylor.

I'd be so pleased if I was wrong about this guy...I guess we'll have to stay tuned!

 

[MzDiz]

I would certainly be nice if the conservatives started acting *conservative* rather than invading other countries, cutting health care to the poor so they can die on the streets and executing everyone. No, wait, there's a zygote somewhere that's been frozen for a decade that some conservative wants to fight for...

Yeah, yeah...

 

[Tigger_Magic]

I'd be so pleased if I was wrong about this guy...I guess we'll have to stay tuned!

I think this says it all. However, this is just one case...

 

[transparant]

He's been on the court for what - less than 24 hours and he got this case of execution stay that I believe was supposed to expire today. He can't very well just go ahead and say "sure, go ahead and kill the guy" without reviewing the case. He needs time to review it in order to make a sound judgment and this says a lot about his sense of fairness.

Just my opinion.

 

[CapeCodTenor]

He's been on the court for what - less than 24 hours and he got this case of execution stay that I believe was supposed to expire today. He can't very well just go ahead and say "sure, go ahead and kill the guy" without reviewing the case. He needs time to review it in order to make a sound judgment and this says a lot about his sense of fairness.

Just my opinion.

I guess the world isn't going to fall apart right away after all.

 

[DawnCt1]

He's been on the court for what - less than 24 hours and he got this case of execution stay that I believe was supposed to expire today. He can't very well just go ahead and say "sure, go ahead and kill the guy" without reviewing the case. He needs time to review it in order to make a sound judgment and this says a lot about his sense of fairness.

Just my opinion.

You are going to disappoint the left with such common sense that it isn't fair!
They would prefer to think that Justice Alito is a sleath liberal who is going to change the face of America and really stick it to the president!

 

[transparant]

There is an ongoing case about the constitutionality of lethal injection (cruel and unusual punishment.) Michael Taylor has been granted a temporary stay of execution by the lower court until the constitutionality of lethal injection is answered.

The state requested that the stay of execution be overturned. The SCOTUS upheld the lower courts temporary stay 6-3.

The lethal injection case:

Supreme Court To Review Lethal Injection Constitutionality

January 26, 2006 10:00 p.m. EST

Ayinde O. Chase - All Headline News Staff Writer

Miami, Florida (AHN) - The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to review whether death by lethal injection, inflicts excessive pain, thereby violating civil rights.

The courts dramatic and last minute decision was based on an appeal by lawyers for Clarence Hill slated to be executed in a Florida prison for his role in a 1982 murder of a Pensacola Police officer.

According to some witnesses Hill already had the needles in his arm when the last minute stay was issued.

The Hill appeal does not ask the court to rule directly on the constitutionality of lethal injection, which 37 states adopted as an alternative to hanging, gas, electrocution and shooting.

Rather, it asks what recourse there should be for a prisoner who finds out at the last minute that the method by which the state proposes to execute him might be "cruel and unusual" punishment.

All they have done is delayed Taylor's execution until a decision is reached on the lethal injection issue.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

You are going to disappoint the left with such common sense that it isn't fair!
They would prefer to think that Justice Alito is a sleath liberal who is going to change the face of America and really stick it to the president!

I just complimented the decision that a conservative justice made and you continue to spew bile...lovely. So are you disappointed that they are allowing this man to live? What's your take on his ruling? Perhaps you're concerned as well that he just might be a little too "moderate" for your tastes?

 

[dcentity2000]

Ah, killing people. The last refuge of the evil in this world.

See, this is why I'm happy to be European

'course, we have our own legal woes. Prison sentences just aren't severe enough at the moment, as "life" has boiled down to a number of years!

Seems that both America and Europe are in separate stone ages!



Rich::

 

[wvrevy]

Seems that both America and Europe are in separate stone ages!

Rich::[/FONT]

Yeah, but at least you're intent on moving out of yours...We seem to be wallowing in ours. At least, some of us do.

 

[DawnCt1]

I just complimented the decision that a conservative justice made and you continue to spew bile...lovely. So are you disappointed that they are allowing this man to live? What's your take on his ruling? Perhaps you're concerned as well that he just might be a little too "moderate" for your tastes?

Oh my goodness Laugh o Grams, I am sure your intent on posting this was just to keep us informed of the latest case before the court I am not disappointed that he is "allowed to live". He has been given a gift that he chose not to exend to his victims. On the on going debate on lethal injection? I will take a "wait and see" attitude. However, if lethal injection is deemed to be cruel and unusual, perhaps we will need to assess the anesthesia procedures that take place in American hospitals every day. I believe that many start with Sodium Pentathol.

 

[DawnCt1]

I just complimented the decision that a conservative justice made and you continue to spew bile...lovely. So are you disappointed that they are allowing this man to live? What's your take on his ruling? Perhaps you're concerned as well that he just might be a little too "moderate" for your tastes?

Oh my goodness Laugh o Grams, I am sure your intent on posting this was just to keep us informed of the latest case before the court I am not disappointed that he is "allowed to live". He has been given a gift that he chose not to extend to his victims. On the on going debate on lethal injection? I will take a "wait and see" attitude. However, if lethal injection is deemed to be cruel and unusual, perhaps we will need to assess the anesthesia procedures that take place in American hospitals every day. I believe that many start with Sodium Pentathol.

 

[Mom2be]

You are going to disappoint the left with such common sense that it isn't fair!
They would prefer to think that Justice Alito is a sleath liberal who is going to change the face of America and really stick it to the president!

Do you ever get tired of speaking for "everyone"

~Amanda

 

[Toby'sFriend]

Well, he just "officially" got the case.
But it isn't like he just walked into an office and found a pile of completely foreign documents sitting on his desk. He hasn't just been sitting at home staring out the window for the past couple of months -- he has been briefed and kept current.

 

[wvrevy]

Wow...a Bush appointee with backbone...What a concept.

Wouldn't it be funny if he turned into the next David Souter ? Seriously...wouldn't you just crack up laughing if it turned out that the guy with the neo-con-from-hades resume was just covering for extreme liberal tendencies that he now has no reason to hide?

Oh, and calling Scalia, Thomas, and Roberts "conservative" is like calling Michael Moore a "liberal". Understatement, to say the least.

 

[DawnCt1]

Do you ever get tired of speaking for "everyone"

~Amanda

I am not speaking for you obviously.

 

[Independent]

You are going to disappoint the left with such common sense that it isn't fair!
They would prefer to think that Justice Alito is a sleath liberal who is going to change the face of America and really stick it to the president!

I want to know what a "sleath" liberal is. And do I want to be one?

Alito's ruling reminds me of a bumpersticker I saw recently. Maybe Alito saw it too.

"Annoy a conservative. Think for yourself."

Seriously, I have my fingers crossed that he will think for himself and issue fair rulings that will, at times, annoy the liberals, conservatives, and middle of the road equally. However, I will reserve judgement until he issues his first rulings on womens and gay rights.

 

[CapeCodTenor]

"Annoy a conservative. Think for yourself."

This could go for liberals too. I know I annoy the &*%^ out of my liberal uncle. When I disagree with him on a political issue he gets all hot under the collar and will quickly change the subject.

 

[Ziva]

"Annoy a conservative. Think for yourself."

I think when people truly think for themselves most end up sitting right in the middle and don't support one party blindly.

As far as Justice Alito, it sounds like he's very level headed and didn't want to make a rash decision and that's always a good thing in the book according to Ziva.

 

[MAKmom]

You are going to disappoint the left with such common sense that it isn't fair!
They would prefer to think that Justice Alito is a sleath liberal who is going to change the face of America and really stick it to the president!

The OP did not say that. She was complimenting Alito for his common sense.
How do you know what anyone thinks?