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Supreme Court Allows Lethal Injection for Execution

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

April 16, 2008 Supreme Court Allows Lethal Injection for Execution By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NY Times WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the most common method of lethal injection executions, likely clearing the way to resume executions that have been on hold for nearly 7 months. The justices, by a 7-2 vote, turned back a constitutional challenge to the procedures in place in Kentucky, which uses three drugs to sedate, paralyze and kill inmates. Similar methods are used by roughly three dozen states. ''We ... agree that petitioners have not carried their burden of showing that the risk of pain from maladministration of a concededly humane lethal injection protocol, and the failure to adopt untried and untested alternatives, constitute cruel and unusual punishment,'' Chief Justice John Roberts said in an opinion that garnered only three votes...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on April 16, 2008 (boomark / email).