The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld the use of controversial drug for lethal injections in executing prisoners on death row.
The judges were considering a challenge brought by death row inmates in Oklahoma, who claim that the use of a sedative called Midazolam has resulted in troubling executions that violate the Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment; according to the Washington Post.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 with Justice Samuel Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas making up the majority, CNN reports.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote how the judgment came to pass: "The prisoners failed to identify a known and available alternative method of execution that entails a lesser risk of pain, a requirement of all Eighth Amendment method-of-execution claims. Second, the District Court did not establish that Oklahoma's use of a massive dose of midazolam in its execution protocol entails a substantial risk of severe pain."
On the other side, some of the court's liberal justices suggested that the high court's ruling would allow prisoners to be "drawn and quartered, slowly tortured to death, or actually burned at the stake" by states that wished to put them to death; according to The Huffington Post.
SCOTUS' decision to uphold the lethal injection procedure means that Oklahoma can resume the executions that were put on hold when the challenge was first issued.
Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, opened a larger question about capital punishment calling for of whether the death penalty violates the Constitution, saying that it was "highly likely that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment."
