Excerpt
(Excerpted from Supreme Court Debates, March 2008)
Lethal injection is by far the most used method of execution in the United States. Seventeen States and the Federal Government authorize lethal injection as the sole method of execution. Twenty other States provide for lethal injection as the primary method. Of the 1,029 executions performed from 1976 through June 2006, 861were by lethal injection, including 375 of the last 378.
Recently, however, lethal injection has become controversial, as critics have contended that the “three-drug protocol,” in which a prisoner is given an anesthetic followed by …
In This Issue
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Foreword
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Methods of Capital Punishment
Overview of Execution Techniques
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Lower Court Holding
Decision of the Kentucky Supreme Court
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Before the Court
The Justices Weigh in During Oral Arguments
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Opinion of the Court
Kentucky’s lethal injection method of capital punishment is not cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the U.S. Constitution
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Pro & Con
Does the Kentucky Lethal Injection Procedure Constitute Cruel and Unusual Punishment?
