Does Lethal Injection Violate the Constitution's Eighth Amendment?

10/05/07

Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr., two Kentucky inmates, are asking that very question. Three years ago, the inmates "brought suit in federal court…questioning the state's chemical mixture and the procedures used to administer it," says an article on www.cnn.com, because some prisoners felt extreme pain during their executions.
 

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The three-drug mixture used by 37 states consists of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride. And while the first drug is supposed to "render the prisoner unconscious," Baze and Bowling claim it wears off too quickly and that "some prisoners are actually awake and able to feel pain as the execution continues." The second drug "paralyzes all muscle movement and prevents the condemned person from speaking out and expressing awareness of the pain," and the third drug "induces cardiac arrest." The effects of this final drug, if given to a conscious person, are "excruciatingly painful."

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Baze, who "admits killing Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe in 1992 while the lawmen were trying to serve him with arrest warrants," is "challenging his conviction on technical grounds." The inmate was due to die Tuesday, September 11; however, the court delayed the execution because it needed more time to review Baze's case.

According to the same article, "The Supreme Court has not ruled directly on the 'cruel and unusual' aspect of lethal injection, but did conclude last year that prisoners can make last-ditch legal challenges to the method of execution, using claims that they would suffer a painful death."