Thread by @chrisgeidner

Two executions are scheduled for today in the US:
• Arizona seeks to kill Murray Hooper this afternoon.
• Texas seeks to kill Stephen Barbee this evening.

Both have applications for a stay of execution pending at #SCOTUS, which has not been receptive to most such requests.

Two other states have executions scheduled for tomorrow, for a total of four executions scheduled for this week:
• Oklahoma seeks to kill Richard Fairchild.
• Alabama seeks to kill Kenneth Smith.

BREAKING: #SCOTUS will not stop Arizona’s 10a MT/noon ET scheduled execution of Murray Hooper.

BREAKING: #SCOTUS will not stop Texas’s scheduled execution of Stephen Barbee this evening. As with Murray Hooper’s cases, there are no noted dissents.

UPDATE: “Murray Hooper was executed at 10:34 a.m. by lethal injection ….”

https://twitter.com/azcentral/status/1592952153244565504

BREAKING: #SCOTUS will not stop Alabama's scheduled execution of Kenneth Smith on Thursday. Alabama has had substantial problems in their attempts to carry out executions this year, but neither state officials nor the US Supreme Court seem to care.

UPDATE: #SCOTUS did not stop Oklahoma's execution of Richard Fairchild earlier today. He was executed at 10:24 a.m. local time.

Here was a news report on the Oklahoma execution. cbsnews.com/news/oklahoma-…

Meanwhile, last night, Texas killed Stephen Barbee in an execution that took longer than ordinary for Texas — following concerns voiced by his lawyers that the execution would be difficult to carry out. Here's the Texas Tribune's report: texastribune.org/2022/11/16/tex…

Here's @dakinandone on tonight's scheduled execution of Kenneth Smith, whose jury voted AGAINST giving him the death penalty. cnn.com/2022/11/17/us/…

If the execution of Kenneth Smith goes forward in Alabama — the execution is scheduled for 6p CT/7p ET — it will be the fourth execution in the US in two days.

NEWS: The 11th Circuit issued a stay of execution, halting Kenneth Smith’s scheduled execution in Alabama. Alabama’s attorney general, however, has asked the Supreme Court, in an application to Justice Thomas, to vacate the stay tonight and allow the execution to proceed.

The #SCOTUS docket No. is 22A441.

Lawyers for Kenneth Smith have responded to Alabama’s #SCOTUS request to Thomas.

Here is the docket for the Kenneth Smith application, if you want to see Alabama's application and Smith's response: supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?Fi…

The current death warrant for Kenneth Smith is valid until midnight (CT), so the state has less than two hours left on the warrant now.

We have not heard anything from Justice Thomas or #SCOTUS at this pt. If we hear nothing, the 11th Circuit stay of execution remains in place.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court has vacated the 11th Circuit’s stay of execution for Kenneth Smith, allowing Alabama to kill him tonight. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson would have denied Alabama’s request. #SCOTUS #appellatetwitter

Reminder: Alabama is about to kill a man whose judge overrode the jury’s the jury’s 11-1 life sentence recommendation. The practice is so abhorrent that every state in the nation now has gotten rid of it. Alabama was last to do so, in 2017, and the decision was not retroactive.

I’ll be writing about the death penalty so long as it exists. Here, so long as Twitter exists, and elsewhere — including at Law Dork. If you’ve appreciated my death penalty coverage over the past decade, make sure you’re subscribed: lawdork.com

DEVELOPING: @lee_hedgepeth, who was to be one of the media witnesses to Alabama's scheduled execution of Kenneth Smith is now back in the media center, with no execution having yet taken place. Awaiting more information ...

Although we are waiting formal word from prison officials, unless the state carried out an execution without the media witnesses, no execution is taking place in Alabama today and Kenneth Smith is still alive.

BREAKING: Kenneth Smith will not be executed tonight.

https://twitter.com/lee_hedgepeth/status/1593481859954089984

Ah, so, it was not so much about Smith seeking to exercise his legal rights as it was about Alabama’s inability to carry out an execution.

https://twitter.com/lee_hedgepeth/status/1593489804527902722