WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2007
Supreme Court To Hear Two Critical Cases
High Court Will Consider Constitutionality Of Lethal Injections, Voter ID Laws
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(AP)
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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.
In another important case, the court agreed to decide whether voter identification laws unfairly deter the poor and minorities from voting, stepping into a contentious partisan issue in advance of the 2008 elections.
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 - including Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state - 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.
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.
"Right now there seems to be a working majority on the Court - Justice Kennedy and the four more liberal Justices - who would be willing to strike down lethal injection as a form of capital punishment until and unless the procedures used to employ it are improved," said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "So don't be surprised if that's the ultimate result here."
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.
The office of the Kentucky attorney general had no comment Tuesday on the case.
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.
Among other new cases the Supreme Court accepted Tuesday:
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- Someone help me with this but when Bush and Gore was having there court battles it was Alito who sent it to the supreme court and Bush rewarded him with Chief Justice. Heard it on Cnn yesterday.
Posted by starleo146
And Scalia''s son worked for the law firm representing Bush. - Reply to this comment
- Unless a state puts in place a system where each and every voter is properly identified and given an ID card with the voter''s picture at the very moment of registering for voting, entirely free of charge for the first card and for replacements as well, the Indiana law should be struck down. However, with the conservatives reigning in all walks of life in our country and especially in the Supreme Court, I wouldn''t be surprised if the brethren strecht the law or the constitution to allow discrimination against minorities to survive in this area. Regarding the issue of unconstitutionality of death by lethal injection on the basis of being unusual and cruel punishment, it could only happen in our USA. The death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment it itself. But since our country is so civilized, moral and CHRISTIAN, we justify that the state has the power to kill. If there were no other alternatives to protect the decent people from criminals and killers, I might agree with the death penalty. But there are alternatives. The state should not have the power to kill, period.
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- How often has this Supreme Court exhibited moral tendancies? I''d be surprised if a majority of jurors voted against the death penalty. If there''s one thing our American society stands for, it is a culture of death.
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- I guess by ''method'' I mean ''procedure'', you know like the process of person A giving needle number 1 with substance x and technician P or whatever . . .
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- "Right now there seems to be a working majority on the Court - Justice Kennedy and the four more liberal Justices - who would be willing to strike down lethal injection as a form of capital punishment until and unless the procedures used to employ it are improved," said CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "So don''t be surprised if that''s the ultimate result here."
I don''t mean to be mean, but OMG I don''t think so . . . for this Court to take this case, I would guess they want to make sure people understand that the previous ruling was limited to just the question of whether the METHOD of injection is ''humane''. If they had the philosophical inclination to hold lethal injections unconstitutional and had the votes to do it, they certainly could have and would have done so with the previous case. In sum the holding for this case is going to be ''strap ''em in'' and get the ball rolling because death row''s getting crowded - 99.99% guaranteed. - Reply to this comment
- This is wasting the count''s time. Whining over a shot in the arm and saying it is inhumane..They are put to sleep...What it comes down to is they want to be given life in prisom...I say we got to seend the message I stand by my 1st post..
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- They use enought of the sodium penathol to put several men to sleep. This makes it very unlikkely that the person being executed has any pain. I think that the person is so far out of it that a playing brass band would not register. This negates the contention that it is cruel.
BTW- 20cc is a measurement of volume. - Reply to this comment
- Someone help me with this but when Bush and Gore was having there court battles it was Alito who sent it to the supreme court and Bush rewarded him with Chief Justice. Heard it on Cnn yesterday.
- Reply to this comment
- Yer think that bas***** abusing that child then killing him/her showed that person mercy.. Sorry Dears..He was thinking of himself and violating others just to get his jollies ...I don''t buy it..Cry mental illness I don''t buy that. A sane person plans it out ,does it..brags..When he/she is cott crys mental illness. Hope for a kind legal system that will pander to the killer..I am a kind person..I stand by my post before this one..
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- Hillary Is Corrupt Like Her Husband They Just Cover up Good! With their corrupt corporate friends. This is why they are doing a media Blackou On Ron Paul because He Is For The People!
The censored GQ report must see the light of day. Hopefully, the author will let a copy slip into the hands of some talk radio star or even Huffington, since she despises Hillary. Clearly, it is imperitive that talk radio and alternate media, along with Fox, publicize full details of the Clintons'' sexual crimes, along with details of Hillary''s stolen FBI files, the 100k commodity bribe, campaign finance and other corruptions involving Hillary, since polls show that corruption is at the top of voters'' concerns when voting.
GO RON PAUL 2008 - The People''s Champion
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
Join The ReVoLuTiOn:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/cities/
STOP THE WAR & SAVE AMERICA VOTE RON PAUL 2008! - Reply to this comment
- Reminds me of one of my law professors who thought the needle prick was cruel and unusual punishment for a guy who raped and murdered a little girl in Texas. The last half hour of her life was spent with this murderer''s prick up her ***, and the law professor was worried that drifting off into dreamie-dreamie land might not be painless enough for the scumball.
Get real. - Reply to this comment
- RESTORE OUR LIBERTY, FREEDOMS & AMERICA! DESTROY CORRUPT POLITICANS & CORPORATIONS GET ACTIVE IN YOUR CITY TODAY, TAKE ACTION! JOIN THE REVOLUTION: http://ronpaul.meetup.com/cities/ He Will Eliminate the IRS! And Stop The War In Iraq Immediatley! Restore And Protect America From Illegal Immigration! http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues He''s America''s Last Hope!
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- Finally ......
I trust the SC will get this ridiculous question of inhumane death by a jury of peers done and over with ... The condemed should get the same treatment as the killer ... PERIOD !!
Id for voting ... If one has to show ID for smokes, booze etc ... certainly one should have to show proper ID to vote ... with all the illegals and vote rigging that goes on it only makes sense ... - Reply to this comment
- Finally ......
I trust the SC will get this ridiculous question of inhumane death by a jury of peers done and over with ... The condemed should get the same treatment as the killer ... PERIOD !!
Id for voting ... If one has to show ID for smokes, booze etc ... certainly one should have to show proper ID to vote ... with all the illegals and vote rigging that goes on it only makes sense ... - Reply to this comment
- MichelleM99
I could not have said it better! - Reply to this comment
- LET BE CLEAR ON VOTING.. We who are born in this nation you know US of A. Legal voters..I had to show ID when I voted in person and proof that I am an American. I vote by mail.
Now the death row issue. Public hangings. The public to watch it carred out. Just maybe they think before they kill others. That killer gave up his/her rights and surely showed no mercy to those killed. Humanely no sah. Stop the pandering of them. - Reply to this comment
- If you are a illegal, then you shouldn''''t vote - no matter how much the Republicans are paying for your vote.
Posted by barbaraf4 at 04:00 PM : Sep 25, 2007
Sweetie, it is traditionally the Dems that court the vote of the illegals. The Repubs want them for cheap slave labor to their corporate masters. - Reply to this comment
tisk tisk serolod2. You should not insult others and call them stupid just because there opinion differs from you. That shows immaturity.
You still need to respect others even if your opinions are different. That is the beauty of our country we can have many different views.- Reply to this comment
- Can you see what states find it necessary to have voter id laws the red states I wonder why.
Posted by antoniof123 at 11:43 AM : Sep 25, 2007
Probably to make sure that the persons voting are LEGAL and have the LEGAL right to vote. - Reply to this comment
- You supporters of the death penalty are justification of why it should be abolished. When those geniuses speak it just confirms that "stupid is as stupid does".
- Reply to this comment
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