Jan. 15, 2021 Catholic News Service WASHINGTON The Supreme Court Jan. 14 cleared the path for the federal government to execute Corey Johnson after denying his two last-minute appeals. The nation s high court denied Johnson s appeal for a postponement of his execution since he was suffering from COVID-19 and his appeal to seek a reduced sentence based on his intellectual ability under a 2018 prison-reform law. Johnson, 52, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 11:34 p.m. EST Jan. 14 at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. His was the 12th federal execution since last summer. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan said they would have postponed the execution because of his COVID-19 diagnosis, and Sotomayor and Kagan also separately said they would have granted a stay based on his intellectual disability.
Sotomayor: 13 executed under Trump administration deserved more from court
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Lisa Montgomery put to death after Supreme Court reversal
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Supreme Court says abortion drugs can’t be obtained by mail
A box of the RU-486 drug, an abortion pill known generically as mifepristone and by its brand name Mifeprex, is seen in an undated handout photo. (CNS photo/Danco Laboratories handout via Reuters)
By Carol Zimmermann • Catholic News Service • Posted January 14, 2021
WASHINGTON (CNS) The Supreme Court Jan. 12 reinstated a federal requirement that women who are seeking abortion-inducing drugs must do so in person, not by mail, as a federal judge had allowed last year due to the pandemic and the high court had let stand.
In its 6-3 order, the justices said women must follow previous Food and Drug Administration requirements that they had to visit a doctor’s office, hospital or clinic in person to obtain Mifeprex, the brand name for mifepristone, also called RU-486, which is used to end pregnancies during the first 10 weeks.
Amid discussion to end death penalty, three executions halted
Sister Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille is seen in this 2016 file photo. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
By Carol Zimmermann • Catholic News Service • Posted January 12, 2021
WASHINGTON (CNS) The three federal executions initially scheduled for the second week of January are now on hold.
On Jan. 11. a federal judge granted one of these death-row inmates, Lisa Montgomery, a temporary stay of execution pending a competency hearing. The other two other executions also were halted because the inmates tested positive for COVID-19.
The next afternoon, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia halted the executions scheduled for Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs Jan. 14 and Jan. 15, respectively, due to their risk of increased suffering because of COVID-19 lung damage. The two inmates tested positive for the coronavirus in December.