April 17, 2008
WHERE EVEN THE LIBERALS ARE CONSERVATIVE:
Top U.S. court upholds lethal injection for executions (Linda Greenhouse, April 17, 2008, NY Times)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Kentucky's method of execution by lethal injection, rejecting the claim that officials there administered a common sequence of three drugs in a manner that posed an unconstitutional risk that a condemned inmate would suffer acute yet undetectable pain.While the 7-to-2 ruling did not shut the door on challenges to the lethal injection protocols in other states, it set a standard that will not be easy to meet. [...]
While most states use a method similar to Kentucky's, a number of them have adopted additional safeguards to ensure that an inmate is properly anesthetized by the initial drug in the sequence, a barbiturate, before administration of the second two, which paralyze the muscles and stop the heart.
In fact, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in a dissenting opinion, listed several of these states and described the extra steps they have taken, to show that Kentucky could and should be required to do a better job. The states she named were Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana and Missouri. The other dissenter, Justice David Souter, signed her opinion.
Which shows how far Right the Court has been moved. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 17, 2008 8:00 AM
Thousands of people are put under general anesthetic for operations every day, so why is anesthesia so tricky to do for executions?
Posted by: PapayaSF at April 17, 2008 12:27 PMacute yet undetectable pain
How do they know there is pain if it is "undetectable"?
Posted by: ic at April 17, 2008 1:14 PMThey can't, which is why all executions must be banned. Or so the logic goes.
Posted by: Gideon7 at April 17, 2008 1:41 PMic:
And yet aborted babies feel no pain to these ghouls.
Drug overdose to murdering bastards: too painful.
Dismembering babies in the womb. Pain, what pain?
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at April 17, 2008 8:16 PM