Jerry Markon at the Washington Post has this up to date story on Virginia's execution of Kevin Green. Green was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection last night at 9 p.m. EDT in Virginia. He was pronounced dead at 10:05p.m. Local coverage from The Richmond Times Dispatch story can be found here. Green was the first inmate executed by Virginia since 2006.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Green's request for a stay yesterday. The Court also denied review of Green's new appeal (Green v. Johnson, 07-10988). Justices Stevens and Ginsburg dissented from the Court's denial. The denial and dissent can be found here. The dissent, authored by Justice Stevens and joined by Ginsburg, articulates Justice Stevens' belief that instead of denying the stay, the Court should have reviewed the merits of Green's claim "in the interest of avoiding irreversible error in capital cases." In Green's new appeal, he argued his trial lawyers improperly failed to appeal the robbery portions of his guilty verdict. On appeal, Green claimed that although his trial lawyers had won him a new trial on the murder convictions, they acted improperly by allowing the jury to learn about the robbery conviction. He claimed this information increased the chances of his being sentenced to death.