SCOTUS delays Virginia execution

Not long after I finished this post speculating about the future of the Supreme Court’s capital sentencing jurisprudence, we get this interesting news from Lyle Denniston over at SCOTUSblog that the Court “blocked the scheduled execution Monday night of a Virginia death row inmate, in a case that seeks to raise basic issues about a state’s obligation to preserve DNA evidence for possible use in challenging a criminal conviction in post-conviction review.”  TalkLeft was all over this case here earlier today.

Interestingly, as Lyle notes, the defendant’s “appeal has drawn the support of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Innocence Project [and his] petition was filed by attorneys at Kirkland and Ellis, led by [former Solicitor General] Kenneth W. Starr.”  A lot more detail about the case and Starr’s involvement can be found in this front-page Washington Post article from this past March.

UPDATE: This Washington Post report provides the latest news on the case and the stay granted by the Supreme Court.