BRIEF: Supreme Court Determines Lethal Injection not Cruel and Unusual Punishment

WASHINGTON, United States – Today, the Supreme Court concluded that Kentucky’s use of lethal of injection to execute convicted criminals is constitutional—rejecting the challenges of two inmates currently on death row.   The 7-2 vote not only allows Kentucky to continue with executions using this method, but will also open the door for other states to follow suit.

Chief Justice Roberts, arguing for the majority, said, “Kentucky has adopted a method of execution believed to be the most humane available.  If administered as intended, that procedure will result in a painless death.”

The Kentucky death row inmates contended that lethal injection results in “excruciating pain,” that the drug used to knock prisoners unconscious wears off too quickly, and that the drug used to paralyze the death row inmate “prevents the condemned person from speaking out and expressing awareness of the pain.” 

Lethal injection is currently used by approximately 35 states as the method of choice for executions.

For more information, please see:

CNN – High Court Upholds Lethal Injection Method – 16 April 2007

The New York Times – Supreme Court Allows Lethal Injection for Execution – 17 April 2008

Impunity Watch – Supreme Court to Hear Case on the Constitutionality of Lethal Injection – 25 September 2007

Comments

[Sparkey]

So often we focus on the criminal and not the victim or their family. I for one don't care if they feel pain when they are executed. They certainly didn't care when they committed the crime.

The Lethal Injection process is not intended to bring solace to the victim or their family. It is meant to rid the world of an individual who has committed an act so heinous that there is no chance at rehabilitation. If we were to allow emotions to affect our judgment, the crux of the death penalty process will be compromised. Emotions would only breed value judgments; value judgments would breed arbitrary enforcement of the law; this arbitrariness would lead to a public distrust of the judicial system.