Clarence Thomas won’t stop execution of Florida child-killer
Main: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (Drew Angerer/Getty Images). Inset: Edward T. James (Florida Dept. of Corrections).
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas put the final nail in the proverbial coffin of a 63-year-old death row inmate in Florida who raped and murdered an 8-year-old girl before killing the victim’s grandmother. Thomas on Thursday declined to present the case of convicted double-murderer Edward T. James to the full court.
“The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the brief order states. “The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.”
A writ of certiorari is an order directing a lower court to deliver a case record to a higher court for review.
The petition was a last-ditch effort by James to evade his execution by lethal injection, which is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Florida State Prison in Bradford County known as “Raiford Prison.” James would become the second person executed in the state of Florida this year.
James was convicted in the 1993 rape and killing of 8-year-old Toni Neuner as well as the killing of 58-year-old Betty Dick. He pleaded guilty to charges of murder, kidnapping, and child abuse. A jury subsequently voted 11-1 in favor of the death penalty for both of the slayings.
James’ attorney sought to stay his execution until the Supreme Court decides the case Rivers v. Guerrero, which is scheduled for oral argument later this month, asserting that the high court’s resolution in that case would “directly impact” James’ case given the “substantially similar issues presented by him.” The Rivers case hinges on technicalities in the treatment of appellants who file multiple habeas petitions.
