September 25, 2007

SCOTUS To Take Up Lethal Injections

The Supreme Court has agreed to review the constitutionality of executions performed by lethal injection, in a challenge stemming from two death row cases in Kentucky. Lawyers for convicted murderers Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling claim that lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment prohibited in the Bill of Rights.

Baze's execution was originally scheduled for tonight. Earlier this month, however, the Kentucky Supreme Court stepped in and halted it for reasons unrelated to the constitutionality of lethal injections. Baze was convicted of murdering a sheriff and his deputy in 1992, and Bowling was convicted of shooting and killing a couple after a car crash in 1990.

Both men sued the state of Kentucky in 2004. Neither one is challenging his sentence before the court.

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Posted at 12:15 PM
Posted to: Capital Punishment, Constitution, Crime, Supreme Court
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