Lethal Injection

US court backs lethal injection

The US Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the use of lethal injections to execute prisoners.

The court rejected by 7-2 the case made by two death row inmates in the state of Kentucky.

They sued the state in 2004, saying the commonly-used combination of three chemical injections violated the US constitution's ban on cruel punishment.

Executions across the country have been put on hold since September, when the court agreed to hear the case.

During an execution by lethal injection, the inmate is given three drugs - a sedative, another that paralyses all muscles except the heart and a final drug which stops the heart, causing death.

States began using the three-drug method in 1978 as an alternative to historic methods of execution such as electrocution.

However, in recent years there have been botched lethal injection executions in Florida and California, in which inmates took up to 30 minutes to die.

A 2005 study also sparked controversy by suggesting the amount of sedation given might not be enough to stop the inmate feeling the painful effects of the other drugs - but would prevent him crying out.

(Published by BBC News 16, 2008)