The state of Mississippi is scheduled to execute a prisoner named Earl Berry tonight by lethal injection. However, the Supreme Court might order a stay to the execution. Five weeks ago, the high court agreed to examine how courts should evaluate the constitutionality of lethal injection. Since then, the court has allowed one execution to proceed and granted stays in two others. Meanwhile, the American Bar Association officially announced its call for a moratorium on all executions. Stephen Hanlon of the ABA said the decision was made after a three-year study of death penalty cases.

Stephen Hanlon: “The American Bar Association has no confidence that fairness and accuracy are being provided in our death penalty systems. It is in that sense that the death penalty has become a cancer on the American justice system.”