By Rose Carmen Goldberg*
A series of botched executions over the past several years has engendered increasing criticism of lethal injection. These high-profile miscarriages have involved prolonged visible suffering, including violent spasms and outcries about intolerable pain. Death row inmates are turning to courts for protection from painful deaths like these.
Last month the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in its first lethal injection case since 2008, Glossip v. Gross. The challenge, originally brought by four death row inmates, claims that Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol is unconstitutional. Specifically, the inmates argue that the use of a drug called midazolam violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment because it is not an effective anesthetic. [Read more…] about Guerrilla War Against the Eighth Amendment: The Supreme Court Battles Over Off-Label Drug Lethal Injections