Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty; Man Executed for First Time in 17 Years

Four death row inmates had their scheduled executions halted at the last minute by a Federal Court “on the ground that the [execution method] likely constitutes cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment”.

This morning, however, the Supreme Court disagreed, arguing that methods like the lethal injection arranged to be used here, are “less painful and more humane than traditional methods, like hanging”, and have “been uniformly regarded as constitutional for centuries”. Therefore, the Supreme Court ruled, “the plaintiffs’ executions may proceed as planned”.

Upon the Court’s ruling, a man who had been found guilty for the 1996 murder of an eight-year-old girl and her parents “was executed by lethal injection”. This was the first federal execution in 17 years.