High Court Stays Alabama Execution

Associated Press

Washington Post

Friday, February 4, 2000

ATMORE, Ala., Feb. 3 -- The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution today to an Alabama death row inmate convicted of robbing and killing a rural grocer in 1984.

The brief order prevented Robert Lee Tarver Jr., 52, from being executed in the state's electric chair at Holman Prison at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

Tarver, 52, was convicted of the robbery and slaying of Hugh Sims Kite, 63, outside his bait shop and grocery in Cottonton, near the Georgia line. Prosecutors said Tarver shot Kite several times and stole his wallet.

In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Tarver challenged Alabama's use of the electric chair to execute inmates, claiming it violates his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment.

The court had agreed to review Florida's use of the electric chair. But last month the court decided not to act on the issue because Florida changed its law, making injection the primary method of execution and the electric chair an alternative method.

Alabama, Nebraska and Georgia are the only states with the electric chair as the sole means of execution.