Executions Resume In US After Supreme Court Lethal Injection Ruling

The 7-2 ruling means that an informal moratorium on executions in place since the court agreed to hear the case last September can now be lifted. Virginia’s governor, Tim Kaine, wasted little time, immediately giving the go-ahead for executions in to resume in his state. 

The case, brought by two death row inmates, argued that the procedure of lethal injection, which is intended to knock out, paralyse and then kill, is inhumane. They suggested a single-dose of a powerful barbiturate as an alternative. The three-drug protocol used in Kentucky is similar to that used in the 36 other states which use lethal injection. 

But the court, in a splintered decision, disagreed with the plaintiffs in the case. Writing the majority opinion, which was only agreed in full by two other justices, the chief justice, John Roberts, argued that the standard for deciding whether a method violated the constitution was if it posed a “substantial risk of serious harm”. The plaintiffs had proposed that the standard should be “unnecessary harm”.