Supremes _ For Cert

For convicted killers on death row, the golden ring sought from the Supreme Court is a writ of certiori -- a review of their case by the court.
 
It's rarely granted and each Monday when the court is in session, the justices release a list of opinions and rulings normally littered with dozens of condemned murderers for whom "cert" is denied.

The Supreme Court appeal is the last stop in an extensive appeals process that takes years. Here's how it works:

--An inmate's attorney raises arguments in state courts.
--An attorney files a federal writ based on what the attorney believes are violations of constitutional rights.
--After a federal district judge rules, the case can be appealed to a federal circuit court of appeals.
--A ruling from that court can be appealed to the Supreme Court.
--At each stage in the process, there are filings back and forth from prosecutors and defense attorneys, and a court may even decide to hold a hearing.

If the Supreme Court decides "cert" is appropriate, it means the inmate won't be executed any time soon and certainly not before the high court itself listens to oral arguments from both sides. What happens in the interim time is that lawyers for death row inmates from all over the country cite the pending case before the justices in hopes of stopping their own client's execution until the court rules. 

That's what happened in September 2007 when the court took a Kentucky case that challenged whether lethal injection was cruel and unusual and effectively stopped all executions in the U.S. for almost a year.
 
-Michael Graczyk, AP reporter who has covered more than 300 executions, writing from the Polunsky Unit prison outside Livingston, Texas, home of Texas Death Row