Posted on 02/27/2006 10:16:49 AM PST by mathprof
The Supreme Court refused Monday to directly consider whether the drug combination used in executions across the country amounts to unconstitutional cruel punishment.
The justices had already agreed to hear arguments in April in a case brought by Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill about the procedure for lethal injection challenges to be filed in federal court.
Monday's decision, which came on a separate appeal by Hill's lawyer, has little practical significance because Hill's other case is still pending.
The justices did not comment when they declined to broaden their review and take up Hill's appeal that raised constitutional concerns about lethal injection.
The execution method is used by the federal government and every state that has capital punishment, except for Nebraska.
Interest in lethal injection has escalated in recent weeks. In California, an execution was postponed last week when no doctor or nurse would agree to administer a fatal dose of barbiturate. A judge is reviewing the state's system.
Death penalty supporters contend that the Constitution does not guarantee convicted killers a pain-free execution.
Hill is on death row for killing a Pensacola, Fla., police officer after a bank robbery in 1982.
Hill came within minutes of being executed last month when the court intervened. His lawyer said he was already strapped to a gurney when the high court issued a stay.
His lawyer said that the doses of drugs used in Florida executions — sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride — can cause pain. The first drug is a painkiller. The second one paralyzes and the third causes a fatal heart attack.
The attorney, D. Todd Doss of Lake City, Fla., pointed to a 2005 study published in the Lancet medical journal indicating that the painkiller can wear off before an inmate dies. The Florida Supreme Court ruled that the study was inconclusive.
Hey, drugs are supposed to be safe and effective.
So I figure in this case, one outta two ain't bad.
Too bad I was hoping they would expand it to cover rape of a child.
That's what the ancient Romans did; throw them off the Tarpean Rock.
....because SOMEONE would survive that fall and then it WOULD fall into "cruel and unusual". I say the most effective and painless way would be to change the gas-chamber's air to carbon monoxide. Go to sleep now.....
Of course, being in MA, I have no say in the matter.
Wonder if their victims received such solicitous care... /s
COKER v. GEORGIA, 433 U.S. 584 (1977)
MR. JUSTICE WHITE, joined by MR. JUSTICE STEWART, MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN, and MR. JUSTICE STEVENS, concluded that (...) death is a disproportionate penalty for rape (...) Although rape deserves serious punishment, the death penalty, which is unique in its severity and irrevocability, is an excessive penalty for the rapist who, as such and as opposed to the murderer, does not unjustifiably take human life.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE BURGER, with whom MR. JUSTICE REHNQUIST joins, dissenting.
(...) On December 5, 1971, the petitioner, Ehrlich Anthony Coker, raped and then stabbed to death a young woman. Less than eight months later Coker kidnaped and raped a second young woman. After twice raping this 16-year-old victim, he stripped her, severely beat her with a club, and dragged her into a wooded area where he left her for dead. He was apprehended and pleaded guilty to offenses stemming from these incidents. He was sentenced by three separate courts to three life terms, two 20-year terms, and one 8-year term of imprisonment. Each judgment specified that the sentences it imposed were to run consecutively rather than concurrently. Approximately 1 1/2 years later, on September 2, 1974, petitioner escaped from the state prison where he was serving these sentences. He promptly raped another 16-year-old woman in the presence of her husband, abducted her from her home, and threatened her with death and serious bodily harm. It is this crime for which the sentence now under review was imposed.
The Court today holds that the State of Georgia may not impose the death penalty on Coker. In so doing, it prevents the State from imposing any effective punishment upon Coker for his latest rape. The Court's holding, moreover, bars Georgia from guaranteeing its citizens that they will suffer no further attacks by this habitual rapist.
IMHO...we have been practicing the death penalty for a long time.
Now....all of sudden...we are doing it unconstitutionally?
I don't think so...the state is paying some public defendent no doubt to put this appeal stuff up, and the Florida judges are welcoming and allowing it to roll upward and onward...no doubt some of the same folks who screwed with the "established and legislatively passed law" in Florida AFTER the 2000 election.
It is too bad the SCOTUS did not just say Nope! I am unsure of the details, whether the whole 9 of them are on this or just three liberals.
Anyone know the procedural background??
The US is a far cry from any Muslim nations for sure, or how about the middle ages when they disemboweled you or burned you at the stake.
What does a murderer want, us to allow his mommy to come hold his or her hand too? How about a live string symphony or orchestra? That would make it less cruel and unusual.
I wonder what uncruel and non-unusual matters he or she may have used to kill his victim? Did he or she make them beg for life BEFORE he or she killed them?
Gimme a break...he or she probably laughed after killing their victim.
No special breaks for these murderers. We are far within the pale of orthodoxy on humane.
"Nitrogen asphyxiation - simply the cheapest, least pain full, least messy means of killing someone."
Me still prefers the Sudden Case of Lead Poison Method!
Of course, the answer here is just to starve death row inmates to death. We all learned from the left during Terri Schaivo's court-ordered euthanasia, that's the humane way of killing a human being as it brings on a state of euphoria, peace and tranquility.
Understand that rapid lead poisoning often leads to bio-hazard material. Water bags tend to leak when sudenly punctured with high velocity projectile. And considering what goes on behind closed bars... I sure would not want to be on the clean up detail.
Bullet to the back of the head. That's what the Chinese do and the Human Rights Commission doesn't seem so against it.
Welcome to Free Republic.
"Of course, the answer here is just to starve death row inmates to death. We all learned from the left during Terri Schaivo's court-ordered euthanasia, that's the humane way of killing a human being as it brings on a state of euphoria, peace and tranquility."
Can you imagine this being brought up on Meet the Press?
These are evil, vicious men who had no mercy on their victims. They rape little girls who are soo scared that I fear thinking of it. Then they strip them down, bury them alive in holes or choke them to death while looking them straight in the eyes as they die. These are men who take another man's wife and brutally beat then sexually force them into acts too sickening to envision.
I say kill them. I say kill them in a brutal, vicious manner. Give them the same mercy they gave. None.
And they would be correct.
Because while it wouldn't be cruel, it's certainly unusual.
I have been anaesthetized several times and don't remember feeling the pain of the operations. I fact, I only felt pain after waking up which, of course, they won't have to worry about!
If the punishment for rape is capital punishment, what is to stop any rapist from always killing the rape victim after the rape? Would a rapist risk leaving a possible eye witness to the crime?
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