Kentucky upholds lethal injection

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Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Kentucky upholds lethal injection

The Kentucky Supreme Court this afternoon upheld that state's lethal injection scheme (opinion here). Kentucky was the second state to have its death chamber shut down over lethal injection concerns and the first do so after a full evidentiary hearing

.The Associate Press notes:
Kentucky death row inmates Thomas Clyde Bowling, 52, and Ralph Baze, 49, challenged the state's method of execution in 2004, saying the drug formula causes inmates to feel pain and is therefore cruel and unusual punishment.

The state has not declared a moratorium on executions but had not scheduled any since the lawsuit was filed. Bowling and Baze have received several stays of execution because of the court challenge.
"We have moved the process forward and, at the appropriate time, will seek a warrant for execution from the Governor," Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo said in a news release Wednesday.

Affirming a lower court ruling issued after a lengthy trial last year, the Supreme Court said the judge in that case made no errors.

"It is not the role of this Court to investigate the political, moral, ethical, religious or personal views of those on each side of this issue. ... We are limited in deciding only whether the method defined by the Legislature and signed into law by the Executive, survives constitutional review," Justice Donald C. Wintersheimer wrote in the unanimous opinion, issued from Frankfort.

David Barron, the public defender for both Bowling and Baze, called the ruling disappointing, but said other inmates' challenges to lethal injection are pending. Barron said he will ask the high court for a rehearing and appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary.Both men are likely to have execution dates set for 2007. Interestingly the Court also upheld the viability of the electric chair as well in what appears to be dicta.