Today the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the stay of execution granted by a federal district court to Alabama death row inmate Jimmy Callahan and reinstated his January 31, 2008, execution date.
The federal district court had granted a stay on December 14, 2007, which meant that for the past six weeks there was no execution date in effect. The State appealed to the Eleventh Circuit and filed briefs in early January. The Eleventh Circuit did not release its decision until the close of business today, giving Mr. Callahan just a matter of hours to try to appeal the decision to the United States Supreme Court before his execution, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday.