A closely divided U-S Supreme Court today lifted a...

A closely divided U-S Supreme Court today lifted a stay of execution for James Edward Reid. The court voted 5-to-4 to allow the state to execute Reid for the 1996 slaying of 80-year-old Annie Mae Lester. The Fourth U-S Circuit Court of Appeals on December 17, 2003 (see) granted a stay of execution in December, 1 day before Reid was scheduled to die by injection. The Supreme Court gave NO reason for lifting the stay. The 4 justices who disagreed with the decision were the more liberal members of the court: John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.