State plans to execute killer

Thursday, January 31, 2008
STAN DIEL
News staff writer

The state of Alabama today will try again to become the first state in the nation to resume executions since the U.S. Supreme Court effectively halted them in September.

The state has scheduled for 6 p.m. the execution of James Callahan, following a ruling by an appeals court late Tuesday that lifted a stay. Callahan was convicted of the 1982 kidnapping and murder of 26-year-old Rebecca Howell of Jacksonville.

He is the third inmate Alabama has tried to execute since the U.S. Supreme Court announced Sept. 25 that it would hear a Kentucky case challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection. Most states have voluntarily halted executions pending a decision in the Kentucky case, which is expected this summer.

Alabama's first two attempts to execute prisoners since the Supreme Court took on the Kentucky case have been blocked by the courts:

The Supreme Court granted a stay to convicted killer Thomas Arthur a day before he was to be executed on Dec. 6.

Convicted serial killer Daniel Siebert was granted a stay in October by the same federal appeals court that on Wednesday ruled Callahan's execution could go forward. Siebert's stay also came a day before his scheduled execution.

Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, said he was surprised the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled in favor of the state, at least momentarily clearing the way for Callahan's execution at Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore. But he expects the Supreme Court today to stop the state from executing his client.

"We're hopeful that the court will grant a stay," Stevenson said.

Equal Justice, a Montgomery-based advocacy group that represents indigent inmates, filed a request for a stay with the Supreme Court late Wednesday.

Callahan's execution was halted by the U.S. District Court in December to give him time to argue that lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It's essentially the same argument being made in the Kentucky case, Baze v. Rees.

The state of Alabama filed a counterclaim arguing that the statute of limitations for Callahan's appeal had expired, and Callahan's execution should be carried out as scheduled.

The state argued that Callahan had two years from the date he selected lethal injection as his method of execution to file his appeal. He picked lethal injection July 31, 2002, so the window for his appeal closed on July 31, 2004, according to the state. Callahan's appeal was filed on Oct. 11, 2006.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the state 2-1 Tuesday evening.

"In light of the fact Callahan's complaint was filed more than two years beyond the limitations period, the district court abused its discretion by entering a stay of execution," Judge Susan H. Black wrote for the majority. "We now vacate that decision."

Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat voted with Black, while Judge Charles R. Wilson dissented. In a dissenting opinion Wilson argued that the clock on the statute of limitations shouldn't begin ticking until "the prisoner's execution becomes imminent."

"The execution becomes imminent when the prisoner has exhausted all of his state and federal challenges to the validity of the sentence," he wrote.

Stevenson said the ruling by the panel of judges was unexpected because it's the same court that stopped an earlier execution.

"It's pretty surprising for a lower federal court to apparently try to force the Supreme Court's hand on an issue like this," he said.

Callahan's crime made statewide headlines in the 1980s. The carpenter, then 35 years old, kidnapped Howell from a self-service laundry and suffocated her on Feb. 4, 1982. Fishermen found her body in a nearby creek on Feb. 17. Howell was a student at Jacksonville State University.

E-mail: sdiel@bhamnews.com

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A personal comment by Britta Slopianka:

the new developments in this case are very serious. The US Supreme Court has to rule today and this decision will be a sign for the future.
Please read more about the case here:

http://virgilturtle.com/phadp/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=63&Itemid=1

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/uncategorized/new-test-on-lethal-injection/

http://lethal-injection-florida.blogspot.com/2008/01/stay-order-on-callahan-alabama-december.html