Sedley Alley, scheduled to die in Tennessee's double execution tonight, has challenges before several courts today. These challenges generally focus on two basic arguments, that the state should allow DNA testing to ascertain if Alley is truly guilty and a challenge to the state's lethal injection procedure.

Of course the state scoffs at these challenges. Alley confessed to the murder, they say, and his lethal injection arguments are based on nothing but an attempt to delay his execution. But these are real issues.



Yesterday, four inmates who have been exonerated by the exact same type of DNA testing that Alley is requesting asked permission to file an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court. Moreover, Alley's confession is extremely questionable, since the facts that he confessed to do not match the facts of the crime. And false confessions do happen frequently, particularly when, as in Alley's case, interrogations are not fully or properly taped. Yesterday's L.A. Times ran an in depth article of true stories of false confessions. Read the piece here.

In Missouri, a judge has put a halt to all executions in that state due to concerns about painful lethal injection procedures. Read the full story here.

Clearly, the issues that Sedley Alley is raising are of concern across the country. We should, obviously, be concerned with the possibility of executing an innocent person, and we should be concerned that the method by which we do so might be tantamount to torture. Hopefully Tennessee will do the right thing as we move through the day.