Mississippi death row inmate gets last-minute stay

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Mississippi death row inmate received a last-minute stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, adding to a series of reprieves since the justices last month agreed to rule on the lethal injection method.

The Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for Earl Wesley Berry 19 minutes before he was set to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Central Time (7 p.m. EDT) at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the prison said.

Berry had eaten his last meal and said goodbye to family members but at the time of the stay had not been moved to the execution chamber just a few feet (meters) from his cell, said Tara Booth, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Of the nine Supreme Court members, only Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito said they would deny Berry's request for a stay of execution.

Berry's lawyers had asked the Supreme Court to stop the execution until the high court rules on whether the commonly used lethal injection method constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

On September 25, the high court agreed to decide a challenge to the three-chemical cocktail used under lethal injection procedures in Kentucky, procedures similar to those used in Mississippi and other states.

There was an execution in Texas on September 25 but there have been none since as executions have been put on hold in a number of states, including Texas, which performs the most by far.

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