Supreme Court Lifts Stay Of Execution For Inmates In Three States

April 21, 2008 3:48 p.m. EST

Washington, DC (AHN) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday lifted a stay of execution for three death row inmates, paving the way for three states to resume carrying out lethal injections. With the decision, Thomas Arthur in Alabama, Earl Wesley Berry in Mississippi and Carlton Turner in Texas will each likely have their executions rescheduled.

The Supreme Court had placed a stay on the three executions while it examined a capital punishment case from Kentucky involving the constitutionality of lethal injection.

Arthur killed Troy Wicker in 1982. Wicker's wife, Judy, had sex with Arthur and then paid him $10,000 to shoot Troy while he lay in bed. Berry murdered in Mary Bounds in 1987, a member of a church choir in Mississippi. Turner killed his parents in 1998.