Lethal injection challenge to be heard by high court

THE US Supreme Court yesterday agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections in a case that could affect the way inmates are executed around the country.

The high court will hear a challenge from two inmates on death row in Kentucky — Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jnr — who sued Kentucky in 2004, claiming lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Baze had been scheduled for execution last night, but the Kentucky Supreme Court halted the proceedings earlier this month.

The US Supreme Court has previously made it easier for death row inmates to contest the lethal injections used across the country for executions.

But until yesterday, the justices had never agreed to consider the fundamental question of whether the mix of drugs used in Kentucky and elsewhere violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

All 37 states that perform lethal injections use the same three-drug cocktail, but at least 11 states suspended its use after opponents alleged it was ineffective and cruel. The three drugs consist of an anaesthetic and a muscle paralysing substance to stop the heart. Death penalty opponents have argued that if the condemned prisoner is not given enough anaesthetic, they can suffer excruciating pain without being able to cry out.

US District Judge Aleta Trauger ruled last week that Tennessee’s method of lethal injection is unconstitutional and ordered the state not to execute a death row inmate. A ruling from California in the case of convicted killer Michael Morales resulted in the statewide suspension of executions.

States began using lethal injection in 1978. Since the death penalty resumed in 1977, 790 of 958 executions have been by injection.