Deborah Denno quoted in the New York Times about the Supreme Court’s decision to hear arguments over Oklahoma’s lethal-injection regime, and whether the use of midazolam in lethal-injection protocols violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bans “cruel and unusual” punishments.
The Supreme Court has not examined lethal injections since 2008, when it held that what was then the standard three-drug combination did not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But multiple opinions in that ruling revealed a splintered court and left uncertainty about crucial questions, said Deborah W. Denno, a law professor at Fordham University, including what standards states should apply as they adopted other drugs and combinations, and when the courts should grant stays of execution.
Read the entire New York Times article.