Supreme Court Will Take Up Lethal Injection

Constitutionality at issue; docket also includes voting rights
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 25, 2007 2:40 PM CDT
Supreme Court Will Take Up Lethal Injection
This undated photo supplied by the Florida Department of Corrections shows the gurney used to execute death row inmates with a lethal injection in Starke, Fla. The botched death of death row inmate Angel Diaz, caused then-Gov. Jeb Bush to halt executions and he asked a commission to examine Florida's...   (Associated Press)

The Supreme Court will take up the constitutionality of lethal injections in what a public defender called one of the most critical death penalty cases “in decades.” The challenge stems from a 2004 suit by two Kentucky inmates on death row who charged that the method constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, the AP reports.

Lethal injection critics say too little anesthetic in the deadly cocktail can leave a convict in horrible pain yet unable to cry out. The docket announced today also includes a case that concerns an Indiana law requiring voters to show photo ID, and whether it infringes poor and minority citizens' voting rights. (More death penalty stories.)

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