SCOTUS Blog reports that the U.S. Supreme Court announced today it has accepted 17 new cases for the term including a Kentucky lethal injection case, Baze v. Rees (07-5439.)
Docket information is here. The cert petition is here, and the brief in opposition is here. All three links will be active shortly. Here's an excerpt from the cert petition:
This case presents the Court with the clearest opportunity to provide guidance to the lower courts on the applicable legal standard for method of execution cases. This case arrives at the Court without the constraints of an impending execution and with a fully developed record stemming from a 20-witness trial. The record contains undisputed evidence that any and all of the current lethal injection chemicals could be replaced with other chemicals that would pose less risk of pain while causing death than the tri-chemical cocktail currently used. Although this automatically makes the risk of pain associated with the use of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride unnecessary, relief was denied on the basis that a “substantial risk of wanton and unnecessary pain” had not been established. This squarely places the issue of whether “unnecessary risk” is part of the cruel and unusual punishment equation and whether an “unnecessary risk” exists upon a showing that readily available alternatives are known.
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