BRIEF: Three Inmates Move to Set New Execution Dates after Recent Supreme Court Decision

Houston, United States - The Supreme Court recently found that use of lethal injection by the state of Kentucky is constitutional.  No sooner had the Supreme Court decided to consider the constitutionality of the issue did inmates begin moving for new execution dates.

Thomas Arthur from Alabama, Earl Wesley Berry of Mississippi, and Carlton Turner of Texas are death row inmates who had their executions blocked last year while the Supreme Court considered the challenge to the Kentucky lethal injection procedure.  Now that the Supreme Court has found the method of execution to not be cruel or inhumane, the states are seeking to carry out the executions of the three death row inmates and the three inmates have "used up all their appeals."

Critics of death by lethal injection have argued that it is when lethal injection is administered incorrectly or in insufficient dosages that the act becomes cruel and unusual punishment.  The process involves three drugs.  If the drugs are administered wrong the inmate can suffer horrible pain.  Even worse, the second drug paralyzes the inmate making it impossible for them to signal their feelings.

For more information please see:

Yahoo! News - Supreme Court Rejects Appeals for Three Condemned Inmates - 21 April 2008

All Headline News - Supreme Court Lifts Stay of Execution for Inmates in Three States - 21 April 2008