The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can continue to use a controversial lethal injection drug involved in at least three botched executions last year.
What was the case about?
The case, Glossip v. Gross, focused on whether Oklahoma's use of a specific sedative, called midazolam hydrochloride, to execute death row inmates was constitutional under the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
What's wrong with midazolam?
While states have used lethal injection to execute death row inmates for years, they previously used a three-drug cocktail approved by the Supreme Court in 2008. That combination included a sedative called sodium thiopental until pharmaceutical companies decided they would stop supplying drugs for use in lethal injections.
Instead, four states--including Arizona, Florida, Ohio, and Oklahoma--switched to midazolam. The move quickly drew criticism after a string of botched executions, including Oklahoma's execution of Clayton Lockett, whom witnesses described as writhing in pain for 43 minutes and crying, "My body is on fire," as he died.
What did the justices say?
While the court's 5–4 decision, led by Justice Samuel Alito, upheld states' use of the, the court's dissenting liberal justices condemned the ruling. But in a joint dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the court's ruling leaves death row prisoners "exposed to what may well be the chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake," while Justice Breyer, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, called for a "full briefing" on the constitutionality of the death penalty itself.