Lethal Injection is Found Constitutional

On April 16, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled on the case Baze v. Rees which posed the question of whether death by lethal injection violated a prisoner’s Eight Amendment. Two inmates on death row in Kentucky, Ralph Baze and Thomas Bowling, brought the case to the Supreme Court saying that the lethal injection “creates a demonstrated risk of severe pain.” After the case was filed, several states, including California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee, all halted scheduled executions. The lethal injection, which consists of Sodium Pentathol, Pavulon, and potassium chloride, causes a prisoner to go into cardiac arrest, resulting in his death.
The issue the case presented was how the Supreme Court should evaluate the risks that arise with the injection. Because the injection paralyzes the prisoner, the court found it difficult to asses whether an improperly anesthetized inmate feels uneccesary excruciating pain without the ability to vocalize it. Although there was much discord among the justices, they still held in 7-2 vote that the lethal injection did not create an “objectively intolerable risk of harm,” thus not violating a prisoner’s right against cruel and unusual punishment. Chief Justice Roberts went on to say that “simply because an execution method may result in pain, either by accident or as an inescapable consequence of death,” is not sufficient enough violate a person’s Eighth Amendment.