<http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/01/us_supreme_court_delays_execut.html>http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/01/us_supreme_court_delays_execut.html

U.S. Supreme Court Delays Execution Set for Today

Posted by <http://blog.al.com/spotnews/about.html>Birmingham News
staff January 31, 2008 4:54 PM

The U.S. Supreme Court at 4:45 p.m. today issued a stay delaying the
execution of convicted killer James Callahan, who was scheduled to
die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. today.

Callahan was convicted of the 1982 kidnapping and murder of
Jacksonville State University student Rebecca Howell.

Callahan's execution had already been delayed once by a lower court
to give him time to argue that lethal injection amounts to cruel and
unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. But the state of Alabama won an appeal Tuesday, and on
Wednesday resumed planning his execution.

Prison officials said Callahan's family is "overjoyed" that the
execution has been delayed.

Callahan's execution would have been the first in Alabama and just
the second in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court
announced in September that it would hear a Kentucky case challenging
the constitutionality of lethal injection. Most states voluntarily
halted executions after the court said it would hear the case, Baze
v. Rees, and federal courts have blocked most other executions.

Alabama had tried twice before to become the first state to resume
executions, but both of those executions also were stopped by the courts.