Supreme Court justices continue debate over death penalty cases News
Supreme Court justices continue debate over death penalty cases

Supreme Court justices continued on Monday an ongoing open debate over the application of the death penalty as the justices filed opinions in two death penalty cases.

In the two cases, Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas believe that inmates are engaging in last-minute appeals as a dilatory tactic; whereas Justice Stephen Breyer, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh believe justices should defer to lower courts when it comes to specific facts in individual death penalty cases.

The court granted a stay of the execution to Patrick Henry Murphy, who argued that he should not be executed in Texas because the state would not allow his Buddhist spiritual adviser to be present in the death chamber. In his statement on Monday, Kavanaugh distinguished the Murphy case from the case of Dominique Ray because Murphy raised a constitutional issue of religion equality.

The court on Monday vacated the stay of lethal injection execution for Christopher Lee Price. Thomas said in his concurring opinion that “It’s difficult to see the petitioner’s litigation strategy as anything other than an attempt to delay his execution.”