Breaking: Supreme Court Halts Execution in Mississippi

—By Celia Perry

| Tue Oct. 30, 2007 4:27 PM PDT

Today seven justices voted to postpone the execution of Mississippi death-row inmate Earl Wesley Berry, with Justices Scalia and Alito dissenting (predictably). This move sets the stage for what could be a national moratorium on the death penalty until the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of lethal injection next year.

—Celia Perry

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