appeals court

Florida – Court Upholds Death Row Inmate’s Sentence

Jul 01, 2015

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court has rejected a Virginia death row inmate’s claim that he can’t be executed because he is intellectually disabled.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday unanimously upheld Alfredo Prieto’s death sentence for the 2005 slayings of two George Washington University students.

At issue in Prieto’s appeal was last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Florida case that a rigid cutoff on IQ test scores cannot be used to determine whether someone is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution. Virginia’s law on determining whether a defendant is intellectually disabled was virtually identical to Florida’s.

The appeals court said it could not conclude that no reasonable juror would find Prieto eligible for the death penalty.

Oklahoma delays 2 executions because of drug shortage

march 18, 2014

Oklahoma delays 2 executions because of drug shortage

An appeals court in Oklahoma on Tuesday postponed the execution of a convicted murderer slated for Thursday because the state has run out of lethal injection drugs. A second prisoner’s death sentence slated for next week was also delayed.

The case is the latest in a growing controversy nationwide over the use of lethal injection for executions. Sources for the necessary drugs have dried up, and states with death penalties are scrambling to find more.

The state attorney general’s office conceded in court documents Monday that state executioners have run out of pentobarbital, a necessary barbiturate used in the execution process. The state lawyers may have to find another combination of drugs to carry out the executions.

Four members of the five-judge appellate panel on Tuesday ordered that both executions be delayed.

(Source: USA Today)