WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has upheld the use of a drug that has been implicated in several botched executions.
The justices Monday voted 5-4 in a case from Oklahoma that the sedative midazolam can be used in executions without violating the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Justice Samuel Alito delivered the opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Justice Stephen Breyer filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg; and Sonia Sotomayor filed a dissent, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer and Elena Kagan.
The drug was used in executions in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma in 2014 that took longer than usual and raised concerns that it did not perform its intended task of putting inmates into a coma-like sleep.
At the Supreme Court, the case is Glossip v. Gross, 14-7955.
Read Tuesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
