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Dr. Kim Mulvihill reporting The United States Supreme Court is considering whether to ban lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment. The justices heard arguments today about the three-step drug method used by most states to execute prisoners. The question is whether this method can cause excruciating pain.
Lethal injections have been on hold across the country since September. Part of the problem is that lethal injections mimic the medical procedure of putting a patient to sleep for surgery. Lethal injection involves three drugs given in succession: The first knocks the person out, the second paralyzes muscles, and the third stops the heart.
However, research shows if the first drug does not work, the last drug can cause excruciating pain. "So long as there's any significant risk that the current method will inflict this excruciating pain, it should be unconstitutional," said death row attorney Don Verrilli.
"I am terribly troubled by the fact that the second drug is what seems to cause all the risk of excruciating pain, and it seems to be almost totally unnecessary," Supreme Court Judge John Paul Steven said.
The Supreme Court has never outlawed a form of execution. In this case, the court may provide guidelines on how to ensure lethal injections are carried out humanely--from the drugs used to the safeguards put in place.
But for some, simply tweaking the procedure won't take care of the bigger problem: it's become a medical procedure, and what we haven't realized is how much of what happens is dependent the doctors and nurses involved.
"If we decided that if this protocol is properly executed, it does not create a substantial risk; that would be the end of the matter wouldn't it? And we would not have another case in front of us next year," Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia said.
If the court upholds lethal injection and simply tweaks the method, will doctors get involved? Medical ethics say no. We have come to a place where we need doctors to be involved, and ethically we cannot.
Lethal injections have been carried out roughly 900 times. There have been only a handful of problems, most related to human error.
