U.S. Supreme Court's death penalty divisions exposed once again

The U.S. Supreme Court's internal divisions over the death penalty were exposed again on Monday in fresh wrangling over how the justices handled a bid by a convicted murderer in Alabama to put off his execution.

Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the nine-member court's five conservatives, wrote a 14-page opinion explaining his views on the court's early-morning decision on April 12 to pave the way for the execution of Christopher Price, 46. The court's order was released too late for the execution to take place and Price remains on death row. Thomas, joined by fellow conservatives Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, took aim at liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, a frequent critic of the death penalty, who had dissented from the Price decision along with the court's three other liberals.

Price had a weak legal argument, Thomas wrote, meaning "it is difficult to see his litigation strategy as anything other than an attempt to delay his execution. Yet four members of the court would have countenanced his tactics without a shred of legal support." In the April vote, the court reversed two lower court decisions that delayed Price's execution so he could proceed with his request to be executed by lethal gas instead of lethal injection. The Thomas opinion on Monday was issued as the court rejected Price's underlying appeal.

The April decision in Price's case was the third time in recent weeks the court has divided along ideological lines on a death penalty case, with the conservatives in the majority each time. Price was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 in the killing of William Lynn, a minister, in his home in Bazemore, Alabama, in 1991.