The Florida Supreme Court stopped Thursday’s scheduled execution of a convicted killer amid questions over whether the state’s lethal injection drugs constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
The state high court on Tuesday evening ordered a stay of execution for Jerry William Correll, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case questioning the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s similar lethal injection drug cocktail. Correll, 59, has been on Florida’s death row since 1986, after he was convicted of stabbing to death his ex-wife, Susan, their 5-year-old daughter and two of his in-laws.
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Outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday voiced his personal view that there should be a nationwide moratorium on the death penalty.
“I think fundamental questions about the death penalty need to be asked,” Holder said at a National Press Club luncheon in Washington. “And among them, the Supreme Court’s determination as to whether or not lethal injection is consistent with our Constitution is one that ought to occur. From my perspective, I think a moratorium until the Supreme Court made that determination would be appropriate.”
