Yes, ladies and gentlemen, our Attorney General is at it again! Two days after Governor Bredesen took the small but logical step of ordering a 15 day reprieve for Sedley Alley to allow the courts to settle Alley's claims for DNA testing (you can see TCASK's response to the Governor's abdication of his responsibilities to uphold justice in previous posts) Attorney General Paul Summers applied to the Tennessee Supreme Court for a new execution date for Alley . . . on June 1st!

A quick note on DNA testing. The Innocence Project and Alley's attorneys have raised the funding to do the testing at a reputable laboratory where the results can be verified, so there is no cost to the state. But the testing will take about two weeks to complete. Now, ordinarily that would present no problem. But, with Summers pushing ahead at breakneck pace, there isn't time, even if a court orders the release of the evidence, there isn't time to complete the testing!

In his brief to the court, Summers states that "Alley should not be allowed to reap a judicial windfall from executive largesse by parlaying a 'brief' reprieve into an extended stay." Apparently, to the AG, merely asking that all evidence be examined before a life is taken is an example of largesse on the part of the Governor, and remaining alive while common sense measures are taken is classified as a windfall. What most of us would consider simply common sense strikes Summers as irresponsible and almost unbelievably lenient. We can only hope that the Supreme Court does the right thing, and laughs this request out of the room.

Read the full text of Summers' request to the Supreme Court here: http://www.tncourts.gov/OPINIONS/TSC/CapCases/Alley/05172006/reset.pdf