Fresh Loaf

NPR and MSNBC, citing anonymous sources, both report Supreme Court Justice David Souter has notified the White House that he plans to retire at the end of the current court term. (The Supreme Court declined to comment on the reports.)

The reports say Souter would remain on the bench until President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace him is confirmed. It would be the first Supreme Court Justice pick by the president. NPR says most observers expect the president to make his first appointment to the court a woman.

Since Obama was elected, many Peach State political observers have pointed toward Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears as a worthy nominee if a vacancy appears on the bench. Sears announced her retirement from the highest court in the state last October. She steps down on June 30.

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The state Supreme Court has voted 6-1 to deny a stay of execution for convicted cop-killer Troy Davis. Davis is scheduled to die by lethal injection tomorrow. Justice Robert Benham dissented.

The stay was requested in order to allow the for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on an appeal filed in July by Davis’ attorneys.

The Georgia Supreme Court’s decision says that the authority to grant the stay falls on the U.S. Supreme Court:

“Because the Supreme Court of the United States rather than this Court properly has jurisdiction over Davis’s pending petition … and because it appears that Davis has already filed in that Court a motion for a stay of execution, his motion for a stay of execution filed in this Court is denied.”

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Leah Sears stated:

“I still believe that Davis is entitled to that hearing. Nevertheless, this case is currently pending before the United States Supreme Court … and jurisdiction is properly in the Supreme Court, not this Court.”

The U.S. Supreme Court had scheduled a conference for Sept. 29 — three days after Davis’ scheduled execution — to discuss whether it would consider his appeal. Now, however, a ruling is expected before tomorrow night.

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Troy Anthony Davis, who is scheduled for execution tomorrow despite a heap of evidence that suggests he might be innocent, has gathered the support of former President Jimmy Carter, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu, Pope Benedict XVI, the Rev. Al Sharpton, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Libertarian presidential hopeful Bob Barr, and New York Times columnist Bob Herbert.

But his only really hope lies with the Supreme Court of Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and — yeah, right — George Bush.

Yesterday’s AJC described a visit the Rev. Sharpton paid to Davis on Georgia’s death row:

“He was not overly optimistic or pessimistic,” said the Rev. Sharpton, who visited Davis … at the request of Davis’ family. “He was suprisingly upbeat. He seemed like he was depending on his faith to see him through.”

Herbert, in his Friday Times column, opined:

Putting someone to death whose guilt is uncertain is always perverted, but there’s an extra dose of perversion in this case.

The United States Supreme Court is scheduled to make a decision on whether to hear a last-ditch appeal by Mr. Davis on Sept. 29. That’s six days after the state of Georgia plans to kill him.

And this morning, NPR chimed in, quoting the Southern regional director of Amnesty International, Jared Feuer:

“Troy Anthony Davis’ case symbolizes all that is wrong with the death penalty. You have questions of improper witness handling. You have procedural obstacles that get in the way of the truth. You have issues of race and, ultimately, you have a system that can’t go back and correct its mistakes.”

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UNHAPPY AS A CLAM: Mussels, north Floridians will suffer from Corps of Engineers’ new water proposal, says a Florida congressman, while Lake Lanier Association president says the plan doesn’t go far enough.

LEGAL INJECTION: SCOTUS dismisses challenge to constitutionality of Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure, freeing up other states to kill their prisoners again. Two Georgia death-row inmates are now back on track to be executed.

SEPARATE BUT DIESEL: Ga. DOT explains the problems with bringing truck-only lanes to Atlanta, while the idea’s sponsor stubbornly soldiers on.

BURDEN OF PROF: Two still-unidentified Ga. Tech professors are being investigated for fraud and theft.

LEATHERHEADS: Georgia State is expected to announce today its plans to start a football team in 2010. AJC’s Tony Barnhart lists five things the Panthers must do to succeed. Around this time last year, Mark Bradley wrote why they won’t succeed.

LACROSSE-CULTURAL: Toli, the 500-year-old Native American predecessor of lacrosse, is big in Athens, where on Saturday UGA’s team will host the 21-time world-champion Conehatta Skunks, who are Choctaw.

THE PAYBACK: The Augusta Metro Spirit lists what will be available at James Brown’s estate sale in August.

PRO-STRIFE: Yale art student artificially inseminates herself “as often as possible,” takes drugs to induce miscarriages, collects the blood, and presents it along with videos of her miscarriages as her senior art project.

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