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Lethal Injection: Amnesty International, US Courts, and PLoS Medicine

Larry Peiperl Uncategorized

The worldwide human rights organization Amnesty International released a report today on execution by lethal injection. The report cites the research article by Koniaris and colleagues and the accompanying editorial published in PLoS Medicine’s April 2007 issue.

The Koniaris data was included in testimony before the Supreme Court of Tennessee, which ruled two weeks ago that the state’s lethal injection protocol was unconstitutional under the 8th Amendment, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.

Last week the governor of Alabama suspended that state’s lethal injection protocol, which was similar to Tennessee’s. A few days after the Tennessee decision, the US Supreme Court agreed on Sept 25 to hear an appeal of a Kentucky case, setting the stage for a national ruling on the constitutionality of lethal injection in mid 2008.

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