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Supreme Court Clerks And The Death Penalty, Matthew Tokson
Supreme Court Clerks And The Death Penalty, Matthew Tokson
Utah Law Faculty Scholarship
This Essay is part of GW's Supreme Court Clerks at 100 symposium.
The Supreme Court is involved, directly or otherwise, with virtually every execution carried out in the United States. Most executions are appealed to the Court, and inmates commonly request a stay of execution a few days or hours before their scheduled death. The clerks review these requests and recommend a ruling.
A few days after I arrived at the Court, I got my first death penalty assignment. As the date drew near, the defendant asked the Court to stay his execution. I opened his file and began to …