The Supreme Court made it clear on Monday that the Constitution does
not guarantee a prisoner sentenced to capital punishment “a painless
death,” paving the way for the execution of a convicted murderer who
sought to die by lethal gas rather than lethal injection because of a
rare medical condition.
Russell Bucklew, 50, had argued that lethal injection might inflict
undue agony by rupturing blood-filled tumors on his body caused by a
congenital condition called cavernous hemangioma in violation of the
Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which bars cruel and unusual
punishment.
In a decision written by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court
ruled 5-4 that Bucklew had failed to present enough evidence for them
to let him ask a lower court to allow him to be executed by lethal gas.
The court’s five conservatives were in the majority and its four
liberals dissented.
Referencing the history of capital punishment, Gorsuch wrote that
“the Eighth Amendment does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death –
something that, of course, isn’t guaranteed to many people, including
most victims of capital crimes.” (Federalist)
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