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Baze v. Rees: Lethal Injection Cocktail Constitutional

By Paul M. Rashkind

In a fractured opinion, a plurality of the Court held that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not prohibit the most common method of lethal injection, involving a three-drug cocktail, sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride. Although the final tally of concurrences provided a 7-2 vote, there was no opinion that spoke for five or more justices. The Court?s plurality adopted as a standard for assessing the validity of an execution method whether it poses a "substantial risk of serious harm." It rejected the death row inmate?s proposal that the standard be "unnecessary risk of pain and suffering."

Full post as published by U.S. Supreme Court Blog on April 16, 2008 (boomark / email).