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Alito casts first vote in Supreme Court
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-02 09:35 US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito dealt
Wednesday with his first case, a Missouri death row appeal, then pledged during
a White House ceremony to fairly administer justice on the high court.
At his second swearing-in ceremony in two days, this time in the ornate East
Room of the White House, Alito received hearty applause from lawmakers and
fellow Supreme Court justices. He was lauded by President Bush as a man of
"steady demeanor, careful judgment and complete integrity."
U.S. President
George W. Bush (bottom R) walks with new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel
Alito (L) as Alito's wife Martha-Ann, son Phil, daughter Laura and Chief
Justice John Roberts (top R) follow behind as they walk on the red carpet
in the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington February 1, 2006. Alito
was sworn-in as the 110th Supreme Court Justice at a ceremony in the East
Room of the White House Wednesday with the oath administered by Roberts.
[Reuters] |
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After being sworn by Chief Justice John Roberts, Alito said, "I don't think
that anyone can become a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
without feeling a tremendous weight of responsibility and a tremendous sense of
humility."
Alito's first vote was straightforward. He and other justices refused to give
Missouri permission to speed up plans to execute a man who killed a teenage
honor student.
More appeals were possible late Wednesday in the case of Michael Taylor, who
would be Missouri's first inmate to be executed this year.
Separately, the court acting without Alito rejected Taylor's appeal that
argued that Missouri's death penalty system is racist. Taylor is black and his
victim was white. He filed the appeal on Tuesday, the day that Alito was
confirmed by the Senate to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
"The death penalty as practiced in the state of Missouri discriminates
against African-Americans such as (Taylor), such that it is a badge of slavery,"
the justices were told in a filing by Taylor's lawyer, John William Simon.
Taylor had won a stay until Wednesday afternoon in a lower court, and
Missouri wanted the justices to lift that stay.
Taylor's legal team had pursued two legal challenges — claiming that lethal
injection is cruel and unusual punishment and that his constitutional rights
were violated by a system tilted against black defendants.
Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a
pro-death penalty group, said Taylor had only a long-shot appeal because of
federal limits on when courts can hear final pleas from death row inmates.
"The constant filing of new legal proceedings drags cases out forever and
effectively negates the death penalty. That's exactly what Congress wanted to
stop," he said.
Alito is expected to side with prosecutors more often than O'Connor, who has
been the swing vote in capital punishment cases, Scheidegger said.
The votes came on Alito's first full day on the job. He took over the
chambers used by O'Connor over the past year — and previously used by Justices
Clarence Thomas, David Souter and Antonin Scalia.
Also Wednesday, Alito was given his assignment for handling emergency
appeals: Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South
Dakota.
In Missouri's appeal, the state argued that the stay was preventing it from
preparing for Taylor's execution. The state must deal with "preserving security
and order in the process, and adequately caring for victim's family, public, and
other witnesses," the justices were told by Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon.
Lower courts were still reviewing Taylor's lethal injection claim. The
Supreme Court has blocked two executions in the past week, and has agreed to use
one of the cases to clarify how inmates may bring last-minute challenges to the
way they will be put to death.
The victim, 15-year-old Ann Harrison, was waiting for a school bus when
Taylor and an accomplice kidnapped her in 1989. Taylor, speaking from his
holding cell at the state prison in Bonne Terre, said Tuesday that he was high
on crack cocaine at the time.
"I pled guilty, and I told the victim's family. I let them know how sorry I
was," Taylor said.
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