Lethal injection on trial

Social justice news
November 6, 2007

Lethal injection on trial
Catholic opponents of the death penalty see a glimmer of hope that the de facto moratorium on executions in the United States, initiated by the Supreme Court’s pending decision on the constitutionality of lethal injection, could lead some states to abandon capital punishment all together.

The Supreme Court has agreed to issue a decision in Baze v. Rees on whether or not lethal injection, as it is used in Kentucky where the case originated, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and violates the Constitution.

If the nation’s highest court, which is scheduled to issue its decision in early to mid 2008, strikes down Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure, it will force other states to reexamine their procedures as well.

“The various state legislatures will have to scramble to come up with some sort of death procedure that does pass constitutional muster,” said Frank McNeirney, the national coordinator of Catholics Against the Death Penalty .

And if that is the case, states may opt to strike the death penalty from their books rather than rewrite legislation, according to McNeirney.

“More and more polls are showing that voters would just as easily accept life imprisonment without parole,” McNierney said.

A recent report from the American Bar Association describes our system of capital punishment as fatally flawed, citing a number of overturned convictions of those sentenced to death row. It advocates a nationwide moratorium on the death penalty.

Daniel Coyne, a defense attorney representing a death penalty case in Illinois, agreed with the assessment, though he emphasized he does not take formal policy stances.

“If you can’t do it fairly, you probably shouldn’t be doing it at all,” he said.

Other legal experts, however, doubt the scenario proposed by McNierney or the notion that we’ll see any major policy changes after the court rules next year. They emphasize that the Supreme Court is ruling on a very narrow issue.

“This is nothing like the days when . . . people saw the possibility that the death penalty itself would be ruled as cruel and unusual punishment,” said William Watkins, a research fellow at the Independent Institute.

Watkins, who is currently defending a capital punishment case in federal court, believed state lawmakers still feel the need appear “tough on crime” and won’t be easily dissuaded from keeping capital punishment on their books.

In the meantime, the court stayed three executions this past October, making it the first month in three years without an execution.

The constitutionality of lethal injection has been debated for more than 30 years, according to Deborah Denno, a professor of law at the Fordham Law School. Since early 2006, however, motions hinging on the potential conflict have gained traction amongst defense attorneys after a California court struck down the state’s lethal injection statute as unconstitutional.

“It has become clear that any attorney handling a death penalty case has got to do this challenge. It would be wrong not to,” Denno said.—Matt Bigelow

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