WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to review the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures has slowed the annual number of executions to the lowest level in a decade.
Yesterday, the high court blocked Virginia's plans to kill a convicted murderer hours before he was to die by lethal injection. Courts in Nevada and Texas this week also postponed executions scheduled before the end of 2007, making it one of the quietest years so far for executions since the mid-1990s.
Executions also have been delayed in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas and Oklahoma since the court announced September 25th it would hear a challenge to Kentucky's lethal injection method.
Courts in California, Delaware, Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee have previously cited problems with lethal injections procedures in stopping executions.
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