The Latest on the scheduled execution of an Alabama inmate (all times local):
2:38 a.m.
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
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11:50 p.m.
Alabama halted plans to execute an Alabama inmate saying there would not be time to carry out the lethal injection even if a court stay was lifted.
The Alabama Department of Corrections announced Thursday evening that it would not carry out the execution of Christopher Lee Price that night.
Alabama had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a stay. However, prison officials announced at 11:34 p.m. that they would not have time to carry out the procedure before the death warrant expired at midnight.
Price was scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the 1991 stabbing death of pastor Bill Lynn.
Prison officials said Price was being moved back to his normal cell in death row.
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7:25 p.m.
Alabama is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let it proceed with the execution of an inmate convicted of a pastor’s stabbing death.
Mike Lewis, a spokesman for Attorney General Mike Lewis, said Thursday that the state is asking justices to lift a stay maintained by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Inmate Christopher Lee Price was scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the 1991 stabbing death of pastor Bill Lynn.
A federal judge on Thursday night stayed the execution to weigh Price’s claim that lethal injections have been “botched” and execution by nitrogen hypoxia is a viable alternative. An appellate court maintained the stay, citing jurisdictional questions.
Alabama has authorized execution by nitrogen hypoxia, but has not used it to carry out a death sentence.
The state has contended Price is only trying to delay his execution with the last-minute legal filings.
To carry out the execution Thursday night, the state would have to get the stay lifted before midnight.
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7 p.m.
An appellate court has upheld an order blocking the planned execution of an Alabama inmate convicted of a pastor’s fatal stabbing.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday night upheld a stay issued by a federal judge in the case of 46-year-old inmate Christopher Lee Price.
It was not immediately clear if the state would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Price was scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening for the 1991 sword-and-dagger slaying of pastor Bill Lynn.
Price’s attorneys argued that lethal injections have been “botched” and said execution by nitrogen hypoxia is a viable alternative.
A judge earlier Thursday stayed the execution for 60 days to weigh Price’s claims. Appellate judges, citing jurisdictional questions, said they would maintain the stay until further notice from the court.
If it were to still carry out the execution Thursday night, the state would have to get the stay lifted before midnight.
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5:35 p.m.
Alabama is asking an appellate court to let it proceed with the lethal injection of an inmate convicted in the 1991 stabbing death of a pastor.
The Alabama attorney general’s office on Thursday asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift a last-minute postponement by a federal judge.
Christopher Lee Price was scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the 1991 stabbing death of pastor Bill Lynn. A prison spokeswoman said Lynn’s wife, daughters and other family members had planned to witness the lethal injection.
State attorneys argued Price waited too late to claim that death by nitrogen gas would be less painful than lethal injection.
To carry out the execution Thursday night, the state would have to get the stay lifted before midnight.
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5:15 p.m.
An Alabama inmate got married at a state prison as his final request before his scheduled execution.
An Alabama Department of Corrections spokeswoman said Christopher Lee Price was married in the prison visitation yard Wednesday. The prison spokeswoman said Price asked for permission to be married as his final request. Price asked for two pints of Turtle Tracks ice cream as his final meal.
Price was scheduled to be executed Thursday evening for the 1991 stabbing death of a pastor.
The execution is on hold after a federal judge on Thursday granted a stay for 60 days. However, Alabama could appeal to have the stay lifted. To carry out the execution Thursday night, the state would have to get the stay lifted before midnight.
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4 p.m.
A federal judge has postponed the scheduled lethal injection of an Alabama inmate for 60 days.
U.S. District Judge Kristi K. DuBose issued the stay Thursday, hours before 46-year-old Christopher Lee Price was scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the 1991 stabbing death of a pastor.
His attorneys argued that lethal injections have been “botched” and said execution by nitrogen hypoxia is a viable alternative.
DuBose said that although the state “certainly has an interest in carrying out the execution as expeditiously as possible, a short sixty-day stay will not substantially harm this interest.”
She gave the state until May 10 to submit evidence in contradiction to Price’s contention.
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2:50 p.m.
The state of Alabama is asking a federal court to reject the claims of an inmate who’s seeking a last-minute postponement of his lethal injection.
State attorneys filed a document Thursday saying 46-year-old Christopher Lee Price waited too late to claim that death by nitrogen gas would be less painful than lethal injection.
The state also says there’s no indication Price could prove any of his arguments with evidence.
The filings came just hours before Price is scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the 1991 stabbing death of a pastor, Bill Lynn.
Lynn was killed in a robbery on Dec. 22, 1991, while preparing Christmas gifts for his grandchildren.
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1:25 p.m.
An Alabama inmate is citing a study theorizing that death by nitrogen would be painless as he seeks to stop his upcoming lethal injection.
The last-minute legal filings came hours before Christopher Price is scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the 1991 stabbing death of a pastor.
Attorneys on Thursday asked a federal judge in Alabama to issue an injunction, arguing the study backs up the idea that nitrogen hypoxia is a viable alternative.
Alabama has authorized the use of nitrogen for executions but has not used it.
His attorneys filed the study done by medical professors after an appellate court ruled he had not shown nitrogen hypoxia will reduce the risk of pain.
The study was done for a lawmaker in Oklahoma which has also authorized the use of nitrogen for executions.
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Noon
An Alabama inmate is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his upcoming lethal injection.
Forty-six-year-old Christopher Lee Price is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening for the 1991 stabbing death of a pastor.
Price’s attorney asked justices to stay the execution to review whether a lower court erred in rejecting his bid for a stay after he asked to put to death by nitrogen hypoxia.
Price’s attorney wrote that Alabama’s lethal injection drug combination has been linked to botched executions, and Alabama law allows the use of nitrogen.
Although Alabama has authorized nitrogen as an execution method, the state has argued that it is not ready to use it. The state said Price missed a deadline to select it as his preferred execution method.
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12:10 a.m.
A man convicted of the sword-and-dagger stabbing death of a pastor is set to become the second person executed in Alabama this year, barring a last-minute stay.
Forty-six-year-old Christopher Lee Price is scheduled to receive a chemical injection Thursday evening for his conviction in the death of Bill Lynn. The 57-year-old pastor was killed in a Dec. 22, 1991, robbery while preparing Christmas gifts for his grandchildren. Prosecutors said Lynn was at his Fayette County home when power was cut and the pastor went out to check the fuse box and was killed.
Lynn’s wife testified she looked out a window and saw a person dressed in black in a karate stance, holding a sword above her husband’s head. An autopsy showed that Lynn had been cut or stabbed more than 30 times.
