Arthur Still Waits on SCOTUS

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court took no action
yesterday on whether Alabama death row inmate Thomas Arthur waited
too long before challenging the form of lethal injection intended
to carry out his execution.
Lower courts said that Arthur unreasonably delayed filing his
challenge to the way lethal injection is carried out in Alabama by
waiting until just four months before his scheduled execution.
Arthur's execution is set for Thursday.
The issue of time limits is a side issue to a larger debate
before the Supreme Court over whether the three-drug form of lethal
injection used in many states is so painful that it violates the
constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Arthur was convicted in the 1982 murder-for-hire killing of Troy
Wicker of Muscle Shoals.