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Posted by: Inspector

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections in a case that could affect the way inmates are executed around the country. New Hampshire, where two potential death penalty cases are pending, is watching closely.

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

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

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

But until Tuesday, 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 10 states suspended its use after opponents alleged it was ineffective and cruel, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The three consist of an anesthetic, a muscle paralyzer, and a substance to stop the heart. Death penalty foes have argued that if the condemned prisoner is not given enough anesthetic, he can suffer excruciating pain without being able to cry out.

U.S. 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 using that method. The state is still deciding whether to appeal the judge's ruling, but agreed to stop a pending execution.

A ruling from California in the case of convicted killer Michael Morales resulted in the statewide suspension of executions.

In New Hampshire, Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Strelzin, said prosecutors are watching the case closely.

"It could be a very far-reaching decision where the court strikes down this method of imposing the death penalty," he said. But, the ruling also could be very narrow, affecting only the Kentucky cases.

He said New Hampshire may well be given the opportunity to join the case and file arguments.

Two potential death penalty cases are pending in New Hampshire, and defense lawyers in one have filed numerous challenges to the state's death penalty law.

In that case, Michael Addison, 27, is charged with killing Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs last fall.

In the second, multimillionaire businessman John Brooks, 54, is accused of orchestrating a plot to kill handyman Jack Reid Sr. in 2005.

States began using lethal injection in 1978 as an alternative to the historic methods of execution: electrocution, gassing, hanging and shooting. Since the death penalty resumed in 1977, 790 of 958 executions have been by injection.

Baze and Bowling sued in 2004 and a trial was held the following spring. A state judge upheld the use of lethal injection and the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed that decision. The appeal taken up Tuesday by the U.S. Supreme Court stems from that decision.

"This is probably one of the most important cases in decades as it relates to the death penalty," said David Barron, the public defender who represents Baze and Bowling.

Baze, 52, has been on death row for 14 years. He was sentenced for the 1992 shooting deaths of Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe.

Bennett and Briscoe were serving warrants on Baze when he shot them. Baze has said the shootings were the result of a family dispute that got out of hand and resulted in the sheriff being called.

Bowling was sentenced to death for killing Edward and Tina Earley and shooting their 2-year-old son outside the couple's Lexington, Ky., dry-cleaning business in 1990. Bowling was scheduled to die in November 2004, but a judge stopped it after Bowling and Baze sued over the constitutionality of lethal injection.

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Associated Press writer Brett Barrouquere reported from Louisville, Ky.

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Posted by: UnlawfulDesign

Ok let fry them instead and watch their eyes bulge from their head and smoke come out their orifices

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Posted by: DPDM

Suffocation until unconsciousness. Continue until dead.

At least that's how they euthanize batches of mice in the lab.

Why not just pump in CO2 while the inmate sleeps?

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Posted by: 5-0

I wonder if the 2 year old that Bowling shot had a chance to appeal his execution. Throw him in the oven, break off the thermostat, and toss his remains in the ashtray.

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Posted by: Delta784

1) Administer anesthesia to condemned prisoner.

2) Place condemned prisoner in guillotine.

3) Chop condemned prisoner's head off.

No muss, no fuss (although a big mess), and he/she won't feel a thing.

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Posted by: andy0921

Quote:

the historic methods of execution: electrocution, gassing, hanging and shooting.

We should still employ those methods.

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Posted by: WaterPistola

isn't it the prisoners right to choose his or her method of execution? that's why they all have not been by injection?

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Posted by: Delta784

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaterPistola isn't it the prisoners right to choose his or her method of execution?

Only in some states;

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/arti...&did=245#state

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Posted by: justanotherparatrooper

Quote:

Originally Posted by WaterPistola isn't it the prisoners right to choose his or her method of execution? that's why they all have not been by injection?

I think Utah was like that. You could choose between hanging/firing squad or electrocution

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Posted by: BartA1

I guess the politically correct crowd are going to have to come up with something less painful to execute these people, or could it be that these murderous scumbags are just using every loophole they can so they can keep breathing air. I doubt that the Earley's and their two year old son received any such compassion from Mr. Bowling when he executed them in 1990. Hopefully the Supreme Court sees this for what it is and dismisses this case so justice can be done for the family of the murder victims.

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