‘The nation’s executioners’: US supreme court slams door on death row petitions

Conservative super-majority especially unwilling to consider appeals, in stance that has flown under the radar

On Monday, the US supreme court issued an order in the pending execution of Robert Fratta, a former police officer from Houston who was sentenced to death for the 1994 murder-for-hire of his estranged wife.

Lawyers for the condemned man had petitioned the court in a last-ditch effort to save his life. They argued that critical evidence at his trial given by a key witness had been tainted, as she had been encouraged under hypnosis to change her testimony....