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Opinion


OPINION

An execution warrant for the death penalty

April 29, exactly one year after Oklahoma's infamously botched execution of Clayton Lockett, the Supreme Court heard Glossip v. Gross, involving three Oklahomans on death row whose counsel argued the constitutionality of the drug cocktail used in lethal injections. Seven years ago, in Baze v. Rees, the Court held the three-drug combination did not constitute cruel or unusual punishment. However, as pharmaceuticals have become scarce, states' experimentation with drug combinations and apparent failure of the initial sedative to induce coma while the second and tertiary drugs stop the heart, have led to botched executions in several states, including Ohio. While the Court decides whether this specific method is cruel or unusual by the Eighth Amendment, there is no discussion of the constitutionality of capital punishment itself. This quagmire highlights, once again, that there is no right way to do a wrong thing.


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