The United States Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the Kentucky case known as Baze v. Rees. Ralph Baze and Thomas C. Bowling, inmates on Kentucky’s death row, are asking the Court to consider – for the first time in over 100 years – whether a particular method of execution violates the 8th Amendment‘s protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Baze has asked the Court to decide:
- Does the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibit means for carrying out a method of execution that create an unnecessary risk of pain and suffering as opposed to only a substantial risk of the wanton infliction of pain?
- Do the means for carrying out an execution cause an unnecessary risk of pain and suffering in violation of the Eighth Amendment upon a showing that readily available alternatives that pose less risk of pain and suffering could be used?
- Does the continued use of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride, individually or together, violate the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment because lethal injections can be carried out by using other chemicals that pose less risk of pain and suffering?
- When it is known that the effects of the chemicals could be reversed if the proper actions are taken, does substantive due process require a state to be prepared to maintain life in case a stay of execution is granted after the lethal injection chemicals are injected?
You can read the Petition for a Writ of Certiorari here. Check SCOTUSblog for further developments.
These men KILLED people….with no regard to whether their victims were free of pain or suffering. And now they are complaining about the way that they are going to die? I think it is ridiculous that people are actually listening to these killers. Somebody needs to tell them to STOP whining and to collect their consequences.
You HAVE GOT to be kidding me!! At what point does this namby pamby pampering of murdering worthless criminals come to a STOP?? They murdered people in cold blood – there has to be a deterrent that is bad enough to make people think twice about committing these crimes. If all they are threatened with is a cot and three hots for the rest of their natural lives, there is no deterrent to killing more innocent people. Not only should they be put to death, but it SHOULD HURT.