Supreme Court Will Not Hear Electric Chair Appeal
Dateline: 02/22/00
The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to hear an Alabama death-row inmate's appeal that use of the electric chair in executions represents unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.
Only Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer said they would hear the appeal. A minimum of five justices must agree to hear appeals in order for them to be considered by the Supreme Court.
Lawyers for Robert Lee Tarver Jr., 52, argued that use of the electric chair was a form of torture that excessively burns and disfigures the bodies of the condemned.
Tarver, convicted for a 1984 robbery and murder of a convenience store owner, had been issued a stay of execution by the Supreme Court earlier this month. Today's action lifts the stay and will allow the execution to take place.
Of the 38 death penalty states, 35 either use lethal injection or allow the condemned to select a means of execution. Georgia, Alabama, and Nebraska are the only states still using the electric chair exclusively.
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