A recent article by Prof. Eric Berger of the University of Nebraska College of Law argued that defendants facing execution have a fundamental right to know important information about the lethal injection drugs they will be given. Berger wrote, “Judicial recognition of this due process right would both protect Eighth Amendment values and also encourage states to make their execution procedures more transparent and less dangerous.” After discussing the history of recent developments in lethal injection, the right to discover evidence under the Federal Rules of Procedure, and the need to be fully informed in order to demonstrate the cruelty of a method of execution, the article concluded: “By permitting states to execute inmates without disclosing key details about their lethal injection procedures, courts are not only denying inmates their Eighth Amendment due process rights but are also implicitly blessing states’ secretive and often unprofessional administration of their most solemn task.”

(E. Berger, “Lethal Injection Secrecy and Eighth Amendment Due Process,”55 Boston College Law Review 1367, 1367, 1440-41 (2014); DPIC posted Feb. 16, 2015). See Law Reviews and Lethal Injection.

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