when you appeal to the 6th circuit court of appeals you can bet one thing's for sure - if it's a death penalty appeal the court's republican nominees will vote against a death row inmate...in fact, many consider the 6th circuit court of appeals (tennessee, ohio, kentucky, michigan) to be one of the most politicized of the appellate courts in the country...

and when the state of tennessee appealed judge aleta trauger's injunction stopping sedley alley's execution pending a ruling in hill v. mcdonough court watchers waited specifically to see which 3 judges names would be pulled to hear the challenge from attorney general paul summers' office...

unfortunately for alley (and his son and daughter) he pulled two bad rabbits out of the hat - hard-core, ideological republican appointees - 62 year old alice batchelder and 61 year old danny boggs - neither of which ever met a death row inmate whose constitutional rights mattered to them...

consider that they were two of the eight justices who voted to deny paul gregory house the right to bring new evidence of his actual innocence before the courts...

so earlier this evening the 3 judge panel, including batchelder and boggs, voted to overturn judge trauger's injunction...

at the moment the execution of sedley alley is back on ... this is why tcask continued to prepare vigils across the state even while many celebrated the, now short-lived, stay of execution...

i gotta tell ya, a public policy that's a crapshoot and results in life or death is morbidly an affront to little d democratic values ...

we mourn the unfathomable loss suffered by suzanne collin's parents but do we believe that methodically destroying the hearts of sedley alley's children is the way to help them in their endeavor to heal???

i hope to hell not ...

peace out <3