High Court Upholds Lethal Injections

Justices Reject Challenge To Kentucky's Death Penalty Procedures, Executions Will Resume

(CBS/AP) 
Executions have been on hold since September, when the court agreed to hear the Kentucky case. There was no immediate indication when they would resume, but prosecutors in several states said they would seek new execution dates if the court ruled favorably in the Kentucky case.

Forty-two people were executed last year among more than 3,300 people on death row across the country. Another roughly two dozen executions did not go forward because of the Supreme Court's review, death penalty opponents said.

The argument against the three-drug protocol is that if the initial anesthetic does not take hold, the other two drugs can cause excruciating pain. One of those drugs, a paralytic, would render the prisoner unable to express his discomfort.

The case before the court came from Kentucky, where two death row inmates did not ask to be spared execution or death by injection. Instead, they wanted the court to order a switch to a single drug, a barbiturate, that causes no pain and can be given in a large enough dose to cause death.

At the very least, they said, the state should be required to impose tighter controls on the three-drug process to ensure that the anesthetic is given properly.

Roberts said the one-drug method, frequently used in animal euthanasia, "has problems of its own, and has never been tried by a single state."

Kentucky has had only one execution by lethal injection and it did not present any obvious problems, both sides in the case agreed.

But executions elsewhere, in Florida and Ohio, took much longer than usual, with strong indications that the prisoners suffered severe pain in the process. Workers had trouble inserting the IV lines that are used to deliver the drugs.

Roberts said "a condemned prisoner cannot successfully challenge a state's method of execution merely by showing a slightly or marginally safer alternative."

Ginsburg, in her dissent, said her colleagues should have asked Kentucky courts to consider whether the state includes adequate safeguards to ensure a prisoner is unconscious and thus unlikely to suffer severe pain.

Justice John Paul Stevens, while agreeing with the outcome, said the court's decision would not end the debate over lethal injection. "I am now convinced that this case will generate debate not only about the constitutionality of the three-drug protocol, and specifically about the justification for the use of the paralytic agent, pancuronium bromide, but also about the justification for the death penalty itself," Stevens said.

Stevens suggested that states could spare themselves legal costs and delays in executions by eliminating the use of the paralytic.

Ty Alper, a death penalty opponent and associate director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law, said he expects challenges to lethal injections will continue in several states.

[nodemotwit]

I believe in the death roll.
I don''t believe in it taking so long to do it.
Posted by AuntieConnie

I agree 100%.
It always amazes me how the pro-criminal, perp-is-the-victim liberal crowd trumpets the relatively recent DNA testing performed on behalf of a small subset of death row inmates, and their subsequent (and rightful) release, as being the reason that the death penalty must be COMPLETELY eliminated.

And I, for one, am all for setting the
''truly innocent'' free,
-BUT-
why can''t that same DNA technology NOW be used to speed up the execution of the ''truly guilty''?

The traditional liberal reply to that is that DNA testing mistakes can be made, therefore we can''t risk it. So apparently, to liberals, DNA testing related to getting people off death row is 100% perfectly reliable,
yet the exact same DNA tests can''t be trusted to expedite a perps execution. Funny how that works.

Decades ago there used to be the concept of a ''hard-labor'' component to sentencing. Today when murderers are condemned to life in prison, what are they faced with ?
A lifetime of :
__free medical care,
__free food
__bed with fresh linen
__air conditioning and heat
__exercise, and
__reading materials.

All at taxpayer expense.
Wow.
I bet each one at his/her sentencing was just begging for the death penalty.

Hmmm. Coddling criminals. Is that something liberals tend to do, or is it the conservatives?
Yet we all reap what is sewn.

[mtdrmbland]

GREAT!!!! Now TEXAS can go and punish ALL the sexual predators in the polygamous compound !!! Good thing they decided to live in TEXAS !!!!

[reel-crazy]

The momentary pain inflicted to these death row inmates is far less than the enduring pain and mental anguish the living victims will have to suffer for the rest of their lives as responsible members of humanity.

What about the final moments the deceased innocent victims suffered before they died at the expense of these worthless death row inmates?

Personally, I hope they feel every inner nerve ending ablaze with excruciating agony. I only wish they would televise these lethal injections so future murderers as well as these numerous wanna-be gangster punks, who randomly shoot innocent folks, can see what fate lies ahead for them.

They will get NO sympathy from me in their final moments, I assure you....

[jamurphy4]

I hope that they do them all on the same day, so we don''t have to pay for their upkeep.. The scum of the Earth should be dealt with quickly, so they can''t escape an commit more crimes.. Good move by the Court.. Yeaaaa!

[beehive21-2009]

Yea ,kill em all.

[CBSTV]

When I read reports such as this about our government killing its citizens, I feel as though I''ve time traveled back to when people lived in caves and grunted to communicate. It is sad to me that people in an otherwise advanced society continue to be bloodthirsty and depraved.

The color red in the United States flag does not mean "hardiness and valor." It stands for America''s affinity for violence.

[haoli25]

Texas will have to open an ''Express Lane'' - four felonies or less, to get caught up again!

[trenticus-2009]

Okay, I am an advocate for capital punishment. Now these killers are whining that lethal injection is painful???? I say put a target on their forehead and have sharp-shooters plant one in the brain pan! I understand that this is instant and painless. At least you don''t hear them squeal in pain so it must be painless. Unlike their victims!

[haoli25]

Think of it as gene pool therapy.

[eje153]

So does that mean that Euthanasia is acceptable also?

[beehive21-2009]

The death row folks,must be hung,shot,or burnt alive, injection is to civilized.

[rudy654-2009]

Also anyone the rape a child should be put to death.
Posted by AuntieConnie at 04:56 PM

I think that if one extended the death penalty in such cases, then the chances that the perp would not only rape the child, but also kill the child would increase? Why? The simple fact that the perp would leave an eyewitness to testify. So no. It''s not a good idea.

[scottyusa]

In Connecticut within the last year, two individuals just put on parole does a home invasion and kills the whole family. State works to toughen parole restrictions. 2 months ago an individual, again recent parolee, tries to rob a house where two elderly ladies were having tea. He shoots one (she survives) and takes the other away in her own car (she does not survive). Yesterday, a man on parole takes his girlfriend out to eat in a nice college popular place to eat. He shoots her in the face inside the place and holds everyone hostage. The poor girl is in critical condition. The motive as published so far? He thought she was going to break up with him. Some people ujust cannot be reformed or just do not care. Lethal injection does not hurt these types enough if you ask me. If any of these individuals get the death penalty I hope they get injected with acid.

[auntieconnie]

I believe in the death roll. I don''t believe in it taking so long to do it.

Also anyone the rape a child should be put to death.

[libsrweak]

Posted by william-king at 04:37 PM : Apr 16, 2008
+ report abuse


******************

you are expecting somebody who put up with criminal activities to declare what is moral??

do you even believe in religion?

[libsrweak]

this is a question for all anti-death penalty pro-abortion liberals..

"would it make it better if we just bath them in some sort of toxic fluid or simply try to yank then with a coat hanger through a pipe?"

[libsrweak]

Now that they have ok''''d lethal injection it''''s about time to reinstate some of the more appropriately painful forms of execution. It''''s a good start.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by notblue at 02:46 PM : Apr 16, 2008
+ report abuse


********************

how about we execute them by the same way and standards that landed them in death row?

[william-king]

I hope Benedict in 2008 will give moral clarity to the issue the way JPII did in 1999 when he called the DP "cruel and unnecessary".

"The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary" (Pope John Paul II, St. Louis, MO, January 1999)

[libsrweak]

On these peoples death certificate the death is listed as homocide. And it should be.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by fibonacci_ at 02:53 PM : Apr 16, 2008
+ report abuse


*****************

then the liberal masses would had out the noble prize

[libsrweak]

If it is OK to execute innocents to avoid letting the occasional murderer live in prison, then we should execute the entire population to eliminate the possibility of future murders.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by RedVeg at 03:57 PM : Apr 16, 2008
+ report abuse


***********

wow you are making it sound like 99% of death row inmates are innocent when you mentioned "occasional".

that occasional happens when you have an incompetent lawyer