The Supreme Court announced Monday that it has declined to hear an appeal, titled Walter v. Pennsylvania, challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty. The appeal, filed on behalf of Pennsylvania inmate Shonda Walters, who was sentenced to death in May 2006 for the murdering of her neighbor, and subsequent theft of his car, asked the justices to consider whether the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, according to The Hill.
The court did not provide any statement Monday in turning away the challenge.
Walter's appeal plays off of Justice Stephen Breyer's challenge of the death penalty issued in June following the conclusion of Glossip v. Gross, citing problems with the measure's imposition and use, according to the Associated Press.
In response to the ruling which upheld Oklahoma's use of a key drug used for lethal injections, BreyEr wrote that, "the circumstances and the evidence of the death penalty's application have changed radically since then," noting that the last time the court ruled on the constitutionality of the death penalty at large was in 1976.
"Given these changes, I believe that it is now time to reopen the question," he wrote, adding that the past 40 years of the death penalty in America have led him to believe "that the death penalty, in and of itself, now likely constitutes a legally prohibited 'cruel and unusual punishment,'" acccording to Politico.
Breyer reiterated this call last week when he was only lone justice, losing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who supported him before, willing to give an Alabama death row inmate a last-minute reprieve.
