Court lifts death row inmate’s stay

RICHMOND - The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted a stay of execution for Virginia inmate Christopher Scott Emmett.

Emmett was sentenced to death for murdering a co-worker in Danville in 2001. The court stayed Emmett’s execution in October while it considered the constitutionality of lethal injection.

Although the court upheld lethal injection in the Kentucky case, Emmett is challenging Virginia’s procedure in federal appeals court. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case last week.