Monday, August 17, 2009

Florida Execution Scheduled For Wednesday Upheld - Now Pending Before Florida Supreme Court

Today, a Broward County [Florida] Circuit Court Judge rejected the request from John Richard Marek to stay his execution. See here and here. The execution is scheduled for Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. Immediately after the circuit court judge entered its order, an appeal was filed in the Florida Supreme Court. A copy of the Notice of Appeal can be found here [His fifteenth to the Florida Supreme Court]. The Florida Supreme Court entered an order requiring all briefs be filed by 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. That order can be found here. Marek's execution was stayed in May by the Florida Supreme Court on a similar basis. Marek's attorney stated that "he still had appeals pending before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta and the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to stop the execution." See here.

The Catholic Bishops Association has appealed for a stay of the execution which can be found here and here.

It will be interesting to see if the United States Supreme Court's decision yesterday, relating to a death row inmate's claim of innocence, will play into this decision. The US Supreme Court's Order can be found here with Justice Scalia's dissent here. Justice Sotomayor did not participate. Justice Stevens wrote a concurring opinion joined by Justice Ginsburg and Justice Breyer. Justice Scalia was joined in dissent by Justice Thomas. Presumably, the Chief Justice agreed with the Court's short order but did not weigh in on the concurring opinion or dissent.

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