High court bickering over death cases, weeks after decisions

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court is shining an unusual public light on its internal squabbling over the death penalty.

The justices on Monday released more than 30 pages of new opinions on issues they decided weeks ago.

The high court almost never revisits opinions after the fact, but the spats the justices aired Monday involve cases the court ruled on in March and April.

In the more recent case, Alabama asked the Supreme Court to step in and allow the execution of Christopher Lee Price. His execution had been halted by a lower court after he raised a challenge to the state’s lethal injection procedure. The Supreme Court fractured 5-4 along liberal-conservative lines to allow his execution. The other case involved Texas death row inmate Patrick Murphy, whose execution the court halted.

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