In a 5-4 decision on Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States denied a stay to Ohio death-row inmate Jason Getsy. Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy–all Roman Catholics–constituted the majority.
Getsy had asked the nation’s high court Monday to allow him to challenge Ohio’s lethal injection system as cruel and unusual punishment.
Getsy, 33, was sentenced to die for shooting 66-year-old Ann Serafino in 1995 in Hubbard, Ohio, near Youngstown.
In her first SC decision, Judge Sonia Sotamayor voted along with the court’s liberal bloc – Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer – to stop the execution of Getsy, which is to take place today.
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