Supreme Court to consider lethal injection ‘cocktails’

The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments on whether Oklahoma’s lethal injection “cocktail” is a form of cruel and unusual punishment prohibited under the Eighth Amendment. 

The case stems from a botched execution last spring in which 38-year-old inmate Clayton Lockett writhed and cried out in pain before dying of a heart attack after the lethal injection was administered.

{mosads}If the court rules against Oklahoma, the decision could affect other states that use similar forms of lethal injections. 

Until 2010, Oklahoma used a mixture of drugs composed of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. But the state became unable to obtain the first drug, a fast-acting sedative.

In 2014, according to court documents, officials swapped the sedative it had been using with another drug. This new mixture was first used in executing Lockett.

Following Lockett’s death, a group of 21 inmates on death row filed a lawsuit challenging the procedure. Four of those inmates — Charles Warner, Richard Glossip, John Grant and Benjamin Cole — are now appealing the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to deny their request for a preliminary injunction. 

Wednesday is the Supreme Court’s final day of oral arguments this term.

Of the three drugs used in Oklahoma, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride are also used in Kentucky’s lethal cocktail, which the court held was constitutional in April 2008. In that 7-2 ruling, the justices said the first drug administered was enough of a sedative to keep the inmate from feeling the painful effects of the remaining two drugs.

That ruling in the case, known as Baze v. Rees, also created a standard for courts to follow in delaying executions. Challengers, the opinion said, had to show a “demonstrated risk of severe pain” that was “substantial when compared to the known and available alternatives.”

In the case Wednesday, the court will attempt to answer whether the Constitution allows states to carry out an execution using a three-drug cocktail if the first drug has no pain relieving properties and can’t reliably produce a coma-like unconsciousness to prevent suffering.

The court will also try to answer whether the standard created in the Baze case applies if states aren’t using a lethal cocktail that’s similar to the cocktail used in Kentucky, as well as whether prisoners would have to prove there is another drug available even if the current drugs being used violate their Eighth Amendment rights.