ATMORE, Ala. (AP) – A divided U.S Supreme Court says Alabama can proceed in the future with the lethal injection of an inmate whose execution was halted a last-minute stay from a lower court.
The justices in orders released early Friday vacated lower court orders that had blocked Thursday’s scheduled execution of 46-year-old inmate Christopher Lee Price.
However, the decision came two hours after Price’s death warrant setting his April 11 automatically execution date expired at midnight.
Alabama will have to seek a new execution date from the Alabama Supreme Court to carry out the execution.
Price has asked to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, a method the state has authorized but not developed.
The court majority said Price waited too late to file his challenge
