Alito Votes to Stay Mo. Execution

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the court's conservatives in a death penalty case on his first day on the court.

Handling his first case, Alito sided with five other justices Wednesday evening in refusing to allow Missouri to execute inmate Michael Taylor.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting an execution stay issued by an appeals court, but Alito sided with the majority in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.

Gina Holland

I'm adding some commentary here because I've seen some serious freaking out happening on a number of conservative forums.

Considerations:

A. This case was thrown at Alito mere hours after being sworn in. There is a human life at stake. To err on the side of caution seems to me to be a responsible and conservative thing to do.

B. This is not a substantive ruling on the death penalty. Nothing, on either side, can be taken away from this regarding Alito's stance on the death penalty.

C. Gina Holland has a longtime reputation for liberal bias. I'm sure she was chuckling with glee as she wrote this and I'm also sure she took advantage of every chance she got to magnify parts of the story that would alarm conservatives.