BREAKING NEWS: U.S. Supreme Court to Consider Constitutionality of Lethal Injection Procedures

In a case with broad national implications, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections as practiced in Kentucky. The Justices will hear a challenge filed by two Kentucky death row inmates, Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling, Jr. The two men sued Kentucky in 2004 claiming that the state's lethal injection process amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, noting that the procedure can inflict unnecessary pain and suffering on the inmate. Prior to today's decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled whether the mix of drugs used in lethal injections violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In a previous ruling, the Court had made it easier for death row inmates to contest the lethal injection process used across the nation. The case is No. 07-5439, Baze et al. v. Rees et al. The Court has ordered that final briefs be filed by Dec. 28, 2007.
(Associated Press, September 25, 2007). See Lethal Injections and U.S. Supreme Court.  Read Baze's petition for certiorari.