Supreme Court Upholds Florida Execution Stay

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The U.S. Supreme Court refused Wednesday to allow executions to resume in Florida, upholding a stay issued by the state's high court.

State lawyers had taken what they called the extraordinary step Tuesday of asking the nation's high court to lift stays of execution granted a day earlier by the state Supreme Court.

The justices scheduled oral arguments for Aug. 21 on the constitutional challenge to Florida's death penalty law. At stake could be the death sentences of 371 people.