Yesterday, Judge Aleta Trauger of the Federal District Court issued a preliminary injunction to stay the execution of Sedley Alley until the United States Supreme Court rules on whether or not current lethal injection procedures meet constitutional safeguards against cruel and unusual punishment (Can you imagine that some people might think that strapping a helpless person to a gurney and poisoning them might be cruel?). Needless to say, we in the TCASK office were fairly excited.

But, the state, never one to let our moment last too long has appealed Judge Trauger's decision to the 6th Circuit. There, a three judge panel will be asked to rule on whether or not the coming Supreme Court decision is a significant enough issue to justify staying this execution. Since the Supreme Court has not ruled yet, and other circuits are divided along this issue, there is no binding precedent of the Circuit; it has never previously addressed this issue. But they could easily decide to lift the stay, in which case we will be looking at more appeals to an en banc hearing (of the full circuit instead of a three judge panel) and then the Supreme Court, so this case could come right down to the wire.

Meanwhile, Governor Bredesen has called for a clemency board hearing narrowly focused on whether or not the state should stay the execution to allow for DNA testing that could prove Sedley Alley's innocence. Of course, the clemency board is likely to respond with a resounding no, to give the Governor political cover if the stay is lifted and he's asked to stay the execution. But we need to tell the Governor that it is not alright for the state to put a man to death without even looking at all the evidence! What we need is to relsease the evidence to allow for testing, under the supervision on the Innocence Project (which will ensure the integrity of the testing), to answer once and for all, the question of Sedley Alley's guilt or innocence!

At the same time, we at TCASK are preparing to bear witness around the state on Tuesday night if the state persists in its attempts to kill Sedley Alley. We will be holding vigils and prayer services in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, Pulaski, and, of course, here in Nashville at Riverbend prison. So everyone keep praying and hoping that this execution is stopped, but even more imortantly, tell the Governor, tell your friends, tell your local newspapers, that we need to release the evidence for DNA testing BEFORE an execution takes place!