Gov. Cecil Andrus urged U.S. District Judge Harold Ryan Wednesday not to issue a stay of execution for murderer Randall Lynn McKinney, who Saturday could become the first person executed in Idaho in more than 31 years.
In a letter to Ryan, Andrus cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued May 30 in which he said the court held the Sixth Amendment does not require that capital defendants be sentenced by juries.Ryan and another federal judge in Boise earlier this year granted stays of execution for condemned killers based on a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said capital defendants are entitled to be sentenced by juries.
Idaho has joined Arizona in appealing that ruling to the Supreme Court because all 17 inmates on Idaho's death row were sentenced by judges, not juries, and they all would have to be resentenced if the ruling is upheld.