U.S. Supreme Court lifts stay on Stenson execution

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court today lifted the federal stay of the execution of Darold Ray Stenson in Washington state, but a state court stay remained in effect.

In a brief written statement, Justice John Paul Stevens said that on procedural grounds, the stay ordered by U.S. District Judge Lonny Suko in Yakima was not warranted.

Stenson's execution had been scheduled for today at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla. But on Monday, the Washington state Supreme Court denied Clallam County's request to vacate a county judge's stay of execution. The state Department of Corrections then canceled the execution, saying a new date would not be set for at least 90 days.

Stenson, 56, was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder for the 1993 slaying of his wife, Denise, and a business partner, Frank Hoerner, at Stenson's Clallam County exotic bird farm.

Last week, the state asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider lifting the federal stay, granted by Suko after Stenson's attorneys argued that the state had recently revised its procedure for administering lethal injections without previously announcing any changes or going through a rule-making process.

In his decision, Stevens wrote that Yuko's granting of the stay was improper because the challenge to the lethal injection protocol already had been ruled upon by a Thurston County Superior Court judge.

"The state court decided under state law that the execution could proceed while respondent's constitutional claim was pending," Stevens wrote. "Accordingly, the District Court should not have entered a stay to give the state court additional time it decided was not warranted."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg concurred in the ruling.

Stenson's execution was delayed after the state Supreme Court was asked to consider the stay imposed by Clallam County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Williams on Nov. 25, after Williams learned that a former inmate had come forward as a possible witness.

Williams initially had declined to issue a stay so requested DNA testing could be conducted, but reversed his decision after hearing details of the possible new evidence.

According to a court transcript, the new witness, Robert Shinn, claimed a second man had told him that Stenson was not guilty and had been framed. Shinn said both he and the second man were high on drugs at the time of the conversation, about eight years ago, the transcript said.