Summary
A 5-4 U. S. Supreme Court decision to reject the claim of three condemned murderers that Oklahoma’s execution process is unconstitutional because it might cause pain. One of the murderers in this case hired a contract killer to beat a man to death with a baseball bat. Another bent his 9-month-old daughter backwards, killing her because her crying interrupted his video game. The third stabbed a female food service supervisor to death while he was serving a 130-year prison sentence for multiple armed robberies. CJLF joined the case to argue that the Constitution does not guarantee a pain-free execution, but lethal injection only requires a level of anesthesia to prevent extreme pain. The Foundation also argued that when murderers challenge an execution method as unconstitutional they are required to present an alternative method that does comply with the Constitution. The Court’s decision adopted both of these points.
