Share

Oklahoma, Florida move quickly to resume lethal injections

The court said the people of the state were entitled to set up an independent redistricting commission as a way of removing some of the partisanship from the drawing of district lines by state legislators.

Advertisement

The decision paves the way for Oklahoma and other states that halted executions to resume the use of lethal injection.

Justice Antonin Scalia said Breyer’s opinions were full of “internal contradictions” and were “gobbledegook”.

“One of the reasons they discussed this is something like 80 percent of all recent executions have happened in three states”, he says.

Oklahoma officials had argued that the protocol was consistent with the Supreme Court’s previous lethal injection ruling. Some justices believed at the time that this decision effectively would end capital punishment.

“While most humans wish to die a painless death”, Justice Alito wrote for the majority on NY Times,”many don’t have that good fortune”.

In an extremely unusual turn Monday, four justices read their opinions from the bench in the lethal execution case. Breyer said studies show the death penalty isn’t a deterrent to violence. It is a sedative in the benzodiazepine class of drugs, which doesn’t exert its pharmacological effects in the same manner as barbiturates. The justices debated the case two years ago, but failed to issue a clear ruling. It is among states that have struggled to find a reliable source for execution drugs since 2010 because of requirements that they identify their supplier. Midazolam was not one of the drugs used, but the sedative previously employed is no longer commonly available.

The state has not executed a prisoner since 2005.

Fellow liberal Justice Stephen Breyer went further, saying it might be appropriate to revisit the question of capital punishment altogether.

A news assistant runs to his co-workers with copies of court decisions past anti-death penalty demonstrators in front of the USA Supreme Court building in Washington on June 29, 2015.

The drug, meant to induce a coma-like sleep, was used in executions in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma in 2014 that took longer than usual.

It has conducted 11 executions that included the use of midazolam.

Following which and in lieu of shortage of midazolam in the USA, the state legislature of Oklahoma on 9 April 2015 passed a bill that allows use of nitrogen gas (nitrogen-induced hypoxia) as a method of execution. During his execution, in which midazolam was injected in an attempt to render him unconscious, Lockett continued to writhe, clench his teeth and struggle against his restraints for 43 minutes.

Advertisement

The execution protocol includes the sedative midazolam. “They’re searching for a new drug for executions, but with the secrecy bill passed previous year, I do not know a lot about what’s going on with that”, he said.

Image Credit Jacquelyn Martin