State justices halt Timberlake execution

[hippiechick]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070117/LOCAL/70117023

By Jon Murray and Vic Ryckaert
[e-mail]

The Indiana Supreme Court has temporarily halted the execution of a Death Row inmate who killed a state trooper. Norman Timberlake, 59, was scheduled to die by lethal injection after midnight Friday. But in a 3-2 decision issued this morning, the justices said his execution should wait until the U.S. Supreme Court settles whether a mentally ill person can be put to death in a similar case it accepted earlier this month. The higher court might not decide that case until June.

“Timberlake’s execution may prove to be prohibited by the Eighth Amendment,” the Indiana justices wrote in their order issued today, which reverses a decision last month to let the execution proceed. “We grant a stay to prevent learning the answer to that question after it is too late.”

The decision comes less than a day after the state Parole Board unanimously recommended that Gov. Mitch Daniels deny Timberlake clemency. His attorneys, Brent Winterfed and Orinda Meier Young court, have argued to the board and in the courts that the U.S. Supreme Court case could change Timberlake’s situation.

more at link ...

Thank Goddess someone in this state has some sense.

[LisaLynne]

1. I was just reading an article about this case in my local paper ...

and just got the most sick feeling in my stomach. I'm glad that they are at least going to look into this. That's about as coherent as I can be at the moment.

[Bob Loblaw]

2. Just for exposing Janet's boob?

My fault. Wrong Timberlake.