[WCADP-list] Supreme Court Opens Door to Lethal Injection Challenges

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Justices Open Door to Lethal Injection Challenges 
  
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; June 12, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court opened the door Monday to
constitutional challenges to lethal injection, the method used by most
states and the federal government to execute death row inmates.

In an unanimous decision, the court allowed those condemned to die to make
last-minute claims that the chemicals used are too painful -- and therefore
amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution's
Eighth Amendment.

The court's ruling leaves unanswered broader questions about the chemicals
used in lethal injections around the country and whether they cause
excruciating pain.

In a second death penalty case, the court ruled 5-3 that a Tennessee
death-row inmate can use DNA evidence to attempt to show his innocence 20
years after he was convicted of murdering a neighbor.

The lethal injection ruling sets the stage for a nationwide legal battle
over that subject, with the country's 3,300 death row inmates armed with a
new tool to contest how they are put to death.

Justices have never ruled on the constitutionality of a specific type of
execution. A constitutional showdown over lethal injection might be the next
big death penalty case.

The winner in Monday's decision was Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill,
who was strapped to a gurney with lines running into his arms to deliver the
drugs when the Supreme Court in January intervened and blocked the
execution.

Justice
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/anthony_m_kenn
edy/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the court,
said that while Hill and other inmates can file special appeals, they will
not be always entitled to delays in their executions.

''Both the state and the victims of crime have an important interest in the
timely enforcement of a sentence,'' he wrote.

Hill, convicted of killing a police officer, had run out of regular appeals
so he went to court using a civil rights law claiming that his
constitutional rights would be violated by Florida's lethal injection drug
protocol. The court's decision renews his bid to have Florida change its
chemical combination.

The decision is setback for Florida and other states that will have to
defend more last-minute filings from inmates. More than two dozen states had
filed arguments at the court seeking the opposite outcome. They said
dragged-out appeals jeopardize justice for victims' families.

Lethal injection is the main method used by every state that has capital
punishment except Nebraska. Nebraska still has the electric chair, although
that, too, is being contested.

Kennedy said that Hill is not claiming that he cannot be executed, only that
he should not be forced into a painful execution.

''Hill's challenge appears to leave the state free to use an alternative
lethal injection procedure,'' Kennedy wrote.

Justices seemed worried about the possibility of pain when they took up
Hill's case in April. Justice
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/john_paul_stev
ens/index.html?inline=nyt-per> John Paul Stevens told Florida's lawyer that
their procedure would be banned for use to euthanize cats and dogs.

Following the Supreme Court's intervention in the Hill case, executions were
stopped in California, Maryland and Missouri.

The case was one of several major death penalty appeals to come before a
court that has two new members.

Retired Justice
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/sandra_day_oco
nnor/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Sandra Day O'Connor wrote the court's 2004
ruling in its last lethal injection case. Justices said then that an Alabama
death row inmate could pursue a last-ditch claim that his death by lethal
injection would be unconstitutionally cruel because of his damaged veins.

In Monday's ruling, Kennedy wrote that the court was only following
precedent set in that case.

The case is Hill v. McDonough, 05-8794.

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