Michael Nance. (Image via a Georgia Department of Corrections Mugshot.)
Death row inmate Michael Nance wants the state of Georgia to shoot him to death instead of executing him via lethal injection. On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court signed off on allowing the inmate to litigate that veritable last request.
Stylized as Nance v. Ward, the underlying dispute is less about the merits of the case than the procedural way in which the inmate chose to litigate what the court termed his “method-of-execution claim.”
Nance has a unique medical condition that would render his death by lethal injection a likely wellspring of torture. So, he filed an injunction under a federal Civil Rights statute seeking to bar the Peach State from killing him via a needle. His legal theory was that, as applied to him only, the Eight Amendment would bar such likely torture.
Lower courts rejected his efforts for various reasons. Relevant here, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit basically accused the condemned man of playing games with his litigation. A divided three-judge panel said his §1983 claim wasn’t really a §1983 claim at all; rather, the court suggested it was a disguised second attempt to have his death sentence tossed because Georgia currently only executes people via lethal injection.
That two-judge majority held, despite the obvious procedural posture, that Nance was trying to file a second habeas corpus petition; he previously filed a petition to set aside his death sentence altogether and lost. Federal law generally bars successive habeas petitions.
Elena Kagan (L) and Amy Coney Barrett (R). (Images via Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP/Getty Images.)
The 5-4 majority…
