Matthew Reeves was executed by the state of Alabama late on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, just hours after the United States Supreme Court, without opinion or reasons, vacated a preliminary injunction by the District Court affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit that would have delayed his execution for a short period so he could be executed by his preferred method. This board has long and vehemently opposed the death penalty, but whether Reeves was to be executed was not at issue here; only when and how. The district court’s order and opinion entered on Jan. 7 was 37 pages long and contained specific factual findings after a hearing with witnesses. The circuit’s Jan. 26 affirmance, without dissent, was 27 pages long. Including the four dissents in the Supreme Court, with a 3-page opinion, seven judicial officers had concluded that an injunction against Mr. Reeve’s death was proper; only five Supreme Court justices toppled their considered legal views and factual conclusions. We question whether the rule of law was served by the silent five-justice majority and current Supreme Court rules and practice regarding death penalty stays.
Mr. Reeves was convicted of a 1996 murder, when he was 18 years old, and he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. At some point, he and other inmates on death row in Alabama were provided with a form by which they could elect to die by nitrogen hypoxia, which was thought to be less painful but would not be implemented in Alabama until about April 2022. He had 30 days to exercise that election, but he did not do so. At some point, with new counsel and his execution imminent, he asked the district court for a stay of his execution until the less painful method was available, arguing both that the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and the Americans with Disabilities Act warranted relief.
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