The Supreme Court by a 7-2 vote Wednesday rejected a challenge to the lethal injection method of executions. The decision in a Kentucky case is likely to end the nationwide moratorium on the death penalty that began last fall when the justices agreed to take up the claim. The splintered rationale among the justices in the majority, however, could spur lawsuits in particular states over how their executions are carried out.
The two condemned prisoners who brought the case had said a widely used three-drug lethal injection method constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.
Most of the 36 states that permit capital punishment use the same mix: sodium thiopental (an anesthetic), pancuronium bromide (a paralyzing agent) and potassium chloride (which stops the heart). The prisoners said the second drug can mask signs of distress and create a risk that inmates suffer excruciating pain before death occurs.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the leading opinion for the court, said the inmates failed to show that the method poses an unconstitutional risk of pain. |