In a 7-2 Decision, Justices upheld Kentucky's use of Lethal Injections which does not violate the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
The ruling came in Baze v. Rees, U.S. Supreme Ct. Case No. 07-5439; 217 S.W. 3d 207 where Attorneys for Kentucky Death row Inmate Ralph Baze, argued that the three drug cocktail used in most states violated the U.S. Constitution because the first drug administered can fail to make the subject fully unconscious, thereby causing the subject to suffer excruciating pain when the heart stopping drug is injected.
The Supreme Court rejected that argument, Chief Justice Roberts writing, "...We too agree that the Petitioners have not carried their burden of showing that the risk of pain from maladministration of a concededly humane lethal injection protocol and the failure to adopt untried and untested alternatives, constitute cruel and unusual punishment..."
