Shadow docket
At 6:00 pm CST on February 11, 2021, a man named Willie Smith was scheduled to be executed by the state of Alabama for the 1991 murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson. Less than 24 hours before this time, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ordered the state of Alabama not to execute Smith "unless it allows Smith’s outside spiritual advisor, Pastor Robert Paul Wiley, Jr., into the execution chamber". Citing "security reasons", the state of Alabama refuses to allow any non-prison staff in the execution chamber and has stated that it will not execute Smith because of the Eleventh Circuit's order. On the morning of February 11, Alabama filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court of the United States, asking it to vacate the Eleventh Circuit's injunction of execution immediately so that the execution may proceed as originally planned. A few hours later, the Court denied the application , and Smith was not executed . This case, called Dunn v. Smi...