Supreme Court To Hear Case On The Constitutionality Of Lethal Injection

     In the April 16, 2005 issue of The Lancet, a British medical journal, researchers found that a review of the United States’ lethal injection policy was warranted.  The journal examined toxicology reports of post-mortem death-row inmates to determine amount of anesthetic drugs put into their bodies upon lethal injection.  The study concluded that in 43 of the 49 executed inmates the amount of anesthetic used in the lethal injection cocktail was below the amount required during surgery.  The journal concluded that, due to flawed guidelines for delivering the lethal injection, there is a probability that the executed inmates might be “aware” during the injection process and experience suffering during the execution. 

     In 2006, the Supreme Court heard the case Hill v. McDonough that posed the procedural question: how may a death-row inmate challenge a lethal injection sentence if the inmate has exhausted all appeals?  The Court was able to decide the case without ruling on the legitimacy of the lethal injection process.  However, the trial centered on the legitimacy of the lethal injection process.  The death-row inmate argued that the lethal injection cocktail “places inmates at risk of ‘wanton and gratuitous pain’” which violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. (NY Times)

     On September 25, 2007, the Supreme Court agreed to substantive examine the lethal injection method used by most states that put inmates to death.  Following the argument in Hill v. McDonough, two inmates will challenge the lethal injection process because it violates the Eighth Amendment in that it is cruel and unusual punishment.  The Court will hear the case on January 8, 2008.  While the public is unable to examine which justices voted to take the case, speculation has begun on the Court’s decision.  Some feel that the Court took the case in order to promulgate a broad rule that the lethal injection cocktail is too much of a risk of inmate pain.  Still others hypothesis that the Court accepted the case in order to cast a narrow ruling which will provide guidelines to lower judges on how to carry out executions. 

For More Information on This Topic, Please See:

Death Penalty Information Center - Medical Journal, The Lancet: Inmates Probably Conscious During Lethal Injections - 4/16/2005

New York Times - Supreme Court Hears Case Involving Lethal Injection - 4/26/2006

Chicago Tribune - Court To Consider Lethal Injection Case - 9/25/2007