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The Supreme Court's order yesterday halting a Virginia execution has the potential to halt executions across the country until the Court delivers an opinion on a pending death penalty case. That case, Baze v. Rees, asks whether the commonly used protocol for lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.
"I think this is a de facto moratorium," said Douglas A. Berman, a sentencing expert at Ohio State University's law school. Since almost all executions are carried out by lethal injection, he said a halt "would mean the most profound hiatus in the operation of the death penalty in at least two decades."It's an interesting turn in the ongoing debate about the fairness of the the death penalty -- which is usually centered around questions of class and race disparity.--Phoebe Connelly
