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Decision May Reopen Death Chamber
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Published: April 17, 2008
Updated: 04/17/2008 12:13 am
WASHINGTON - A national drive to halt the death penalty met defeat at the Supreme Court on Wednesday when the justices ruled that lethal injections, if properly administered, are a humane means of executing a condemned prisoner.
With a 7-2 vote, the court rejected a constitutional attack on the main method of carrying out the death penalty across America. Its ruling cleared the way for executions to resume after a seven-month delay.
Since October, officials and judges in several states, including Florida, have put executions on hold while awaiting the outcome of the Kentucky case decided Wednesday.
The court's opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed there is strong support for the death penalty among the justices and an unwillingness to tolerate endless delay.
"We begin with the principle ... that capital punishment is constitutional. It necessarily follows that there must be a means of carrying it out," Roberts wrote.
"Some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution - no matter how humane - if only from the prospect of error in following the required procedure."
Roberts said the court would not allow a theoretical risk that a future execution would be botched to stand in the way of carrying out the death penalty.
He also set a high bar for future challenges to carrying out an execution.
To win a halt to an execution, defense lawyers must show there is a "substantial risk" that the condemned prisoner will suffer "severe pain," the chief justice said.
"A state with a lethal injection protocol substantially similar to the protocol we upheld today would not create a risk that meets this standard," he said.
Agreeing with Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito added a note to say the court should not allow "litigation gridlock" to "produce a de facto ban on capital punishment." Justice Anthony Kennedy also agreed with Roberts.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia said they would go further and reject all challenges to an execution method unless it is "deliberately designed to inflict pain."
Officials Move Quickly
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum asked the high court to allow the state to go ahead with the execution of child killer Mark Dean Schwab because Florida's method of execution is nearly identical to the method upheld in the Kentucky case.
The court had stopped the Schwab execution, and McCollum filed paperwork Wednesday afternoon seeking to have the order lifted.
Also, Gov. Charlie Crist asked for a "very short list" of the worst death row inmates so he can sign his next death warrant. There are 388 people on death row.
Despite the lopsided outcome in the Supreme Court case, a deep split remains on capital punishment among the justices. Death penalty cases that come before the court often are decided by a 5-4 vote.
Justice John Paul Stevens, who will be 88 years old Sunday, said his three decades on the court have convinced him that the death penalty should be ended.
Nonetheless, Stevens voted with Roberts to reject the challenge to lethal injections, since there was no evidence that Kentucky's approach is badly flawed. Justice Stephen Breyer agreed for much the same reason.
Giving Way To 'Humane Methods'
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter stood alone in dissent. They said they would maintain the hold on executions because Kentucky "lacks the basic safeguards" to ensure the inmate dies a painless death.
The argument against the three-drug protocol used in executions is that if the initial anesthetic does not take hold, the other two drugs can cause excruciating pain. One of those drugs, a paralytic, would render the prisoner unable to express his discomfort.
Last year, defense lawyers appealed on behalf of two Kentucky inmates and argued that the court should say it is unconstitutional "cruel and unusual punishment" to subject prisoners to an "unnecessary risk" of pain. Death penalty foes were cheered in the fall when the court agreed to hear this challenge.
Taking a longer view, Roberts noted that the Supreme Court has never struck down an execution method as unconstitutional. Nonetheless, states have made steady progress in finding better ways to execute prisoners, he said.
"The firing squad, hanging, the electric chair and the gas chamber have each in turn given way to more humane methods, culminating in today's consensus on lethal injections," Roberts said.
Mark Elliott, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the court had sidestepped the issue of whether the death penalty is just and proper.
"The Supreme Court addressed the method but not the madness," Elliott said. "There's no right way to do the wrong thing."
Tribune reporter Valerie Kalfrin contributed to this report. Information from The Associated Press also was used.
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Reader Comments
Posted by ( robertj1954 ) on April 17, 2008 at 8:18 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
The United States Supreme Court has affirmed the lethal injection process used in executions does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. This was in response to another roadblock erected by anti-death penalty advocates who are fighting to keep the monsters waiting on death row alive.
Fortunately for Florida they use the exact same process used by Kentucky. It was Kentucky's execution process that has been ruled constitutional by the court. This decision also clears the way for Florida to resume executions.
The Governor has requested a list from the Attorney General to help him make his selection on death warrants to be signed by him. I say go Charlie and lets get the inventory cleared up there on death row. It disgusts me to know there are murders growing old on death row and breathing our air.
I would like to encourage the Governor to take a good hard look at one monster, Willie Crane, who has been sitting on death row for ten years. For some who have forgotten or are not familiar with his infamous murder, he killed little Amanda Brown back in 1998 by snatching her from her bed in the middle of the night. He took her to his place and brutally raped her and then after killing her dumped her body in a crab trap and tossed it somewhere in the bay where it was never recovered. Even after all of these years following his conviction he refuses to provide investigators with details of where her body was dumped. Try and imagine for a minute being the parents of Amanda Brown and knowing this monster continues to breathe air in prison. The photograph on this page is the sick twisted monster responsible for her tragic death.
Ten years of appeals is long enough for this sub-human. He should be brought to the top of the list and given the injection. Charlie you have always been an advocate of law and order and ensuring criminals due their time for the crime. Now you must do your job and start putting these despicable murdering monsters to death. Let’s not waste any more time if the appeals are finished and they are guilty execute them!
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Posted by ( acuratl96 ) on April 17, 2008 at 8:18 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I am sure what they did to earn the death penalty was in humane also to the victims, why do they deserve any sympathy.
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Posted by ( RRR ) on April 17, 2008 at 8:21 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Spending way too much time and money on these killers. If handled correctly there are no repeat offenders. Very tired of these thugs and thuggetts--they are a bad example to these younger-in-training folks. Imagine the different results if those 8 Lakeland folks would have gotten to see an execution or spent some quality time on a chain-gang last year.
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Posted by ( 6ftunder ) on April 17, 2008 at 8:23 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Anyone who does extreme physical harm to another human being should automatically get the death penalty or at least the same fate in return. In fact, they could be given the choice. Do they want lethal injection or to be beaten, raped and stabbed to death? Let them decide. The reason we have so much crime is because no one is afraid of the consequences because the consequences aren't scary enough. People have to be ruled by fear. Unfortunate but true. And children need to be raised with fear. And because everyone decided that they shouldn't be raised with fear, they have run completely amuck. I was raised with fear because i was raised with grandparents who wouldn't take any crap. And I am very grateful I was raised that way. Always made aware of the consequences. Smacked when necessary and I only got hit about three times because that's all it took.
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Posted by ( RuSeriousMan ) on April 17, 2008 at 8:26 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I say the way they kill is the way they die. The victims had no choice or someone overlooking the way they should die.
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Posted by ( tgarrett ) on April 17, 2008 at 8:27 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Finally! Let them get to work and clean out the death row warehouses. There are way too many sentenced capital offenders existing at large expense when they should not be alive.
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Posted by ( watttt ) on April 17, 2008 at 8:28 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Who cares if it's humane? You don't get sentenced to die by lethal injection for piling up parking tickets.
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Posted by ( knowbetter ) on April 17, 2008 at 8:34 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I feel they should FEEL the pain,,,what about the person they are being punished for,,,EYE FOR AN EYE...
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Posted by ( KMAG_YO_YO ) on April 17, 2008 at 8:51 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I approve of using capital punishment but make sure, without the slightest doubt, that the recipient of the needle is 100% guilty of the crime. As Sir John Fortescue stated (and I agree with), "one would much rather that twenty guilty persons should escape the punishment of death, than that one innocent person should be condemned and suffer capitally."
So if the state is sure, without a doubt, they got the right perps... let's start thinning the herd. Got the slightest doubt... spare the needle until the doubt is resolved one way or the other.
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Posted by ( nitewolfmom ) on April 17, 2008 at 9:16 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I feel that the A C L U and all the bleeding heart lawyers that are getting rich from all the appeals have forgotten what the death sentence is supposed to be for. Jail and prison are not for vacations, or for a camp ground for naughty children. They are for the prime word PUNNISHMENT.Why should people that kill in some of the most horendous ways deserve to have pity taken on them because the injection may cause some pain. My pitty goes out to the victums not the criminal.
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Posted by ( JackNelsonSteward ) on April 17, 2008 at 9:18 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Ahhhh, the blood-hungry howlings of the terminally self righteous ...
All "Christians," huh?! and following the teachings of your "Savior" are you?
He'd be proud!!
Of course, if it weren't for the death penalty handed down by the Roman Empire, Jesus might have remained just another itinerant rabbi ....
You howl, not for justice, but for revenge. Do we have a "Justice System " or a "Revenge System?"
It is very satisfying to howl with the pack after the skin and blood of some savage offender...fine, but let's drop the pretense of being "civilized," OK?
The death sentence costs more to carry out than leaving that "animal" you so revile to stew in his own squat for the rest of his life. Killing the offender won't heal your loss.
We are obviously, as a society, at best very ambivalent about killing those adjudicated guilty. Hence the almost endless opportunities built into the system for appeals. I mean, the first appeal is automatic!
You've watched the courts. Do you think they arrive at the "truth" often enough and realiably enough to entrust them with life and death decisions over citizens?
Do you want the State to have the power of life and death over you? Does it do such a good job in all its other pursuits that you are confident about putting your life in its hands?
and if the State can kill you ...
Does that make you a Citizen ...
or a Subject?
Talk to me.
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Posted by ( pennyhouston2000 ) on April 17, 2008 at 9:24 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
our system never stops amazing me...our nation is so quick to punish the parents who are trying to keep their kids from becoming one of these murdering, robbing, raping, etc.POS....but on the other hand..let's be concerned about whether or not it is going to hurt a convicted murdurer, rapist when they are put to death. Is it just me...or does this not make any sense here people....give me a break.....they had no concerns for the pain of their victims or their families!!!!
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Posted by ( RobKay ) on April 17, 2008 at 9:29 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
I agree with everyone else, why should we care if the means of execution is humane or not? What the criminals did to get that sentence certainly was not humane. I don't care if you shoot 'em, fry 'em, hang 'em or inject 'em - just do it! Whats really inhumane is letting them sit there and wonder if or when it'll ever happen.
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Posted by ( Hothead ) on April 17, 2008 at 12:37 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Easy MrCaulkenbols, Don't think that slipped by. Many, many democratc and liberals are in favor of the death penalty. Cut the snide propaganda.
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Posted by ( nuts1999 ) on April 17, 2008 at 5:12 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
JackNelsonSteward, cost $35,000 a year to keep sum baggs alive. 10 years, $350,000, 30 years over a mil. A neelde, priceless
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Posted by ( JackNelsonSteward ) on April 17, 2008 at 7:23 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
nuts...
What costs is the court procedures. I didn't make that up. It has been studied and if you total up all the costs for trying, and appealing and all the other stuff that goes with the death sentence, it's cheaper just to leave'em to rot in their squat.
What do you think is tougher punishment, a quick and painless death or living out the rest of your life in a cage with others that would just as soon do to you what you did to get in there?
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