Following botched executions in Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona, death-row inmates in Oklahoma are challenging that state’s method of administering the death penalty: lethal injection using a series of three drugs in succession. The case is Glossip v. Gross.
Maurer School of Law professor Jody Madeira, whose research includes the intersection of law and emotion in criminal and family law, said authorities are eager for clearer guidance on whether certain methods of administering the death penalty violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
She said a ruling in the case could be especially helpful if it clarifies a key element of a 2008 court decision on lethal injection: whether inmates who challenge the method of execution must point to an alternative drug that would do the job more effectively or with less pain.
“Courts have told states to select more effective lethal injection procedures but given them no guidance on how to do that,” Madeira said. “And because markets for execution drugs have shut down one by one, this creates the ideal conditions for organizational experimentation and mistake. So the Supreme Court could potentially provide needed guidance on this very complex and ethically problematic issue. Even a narrow ruling would be helpful guidance.”
Madeira, professor of law and Louis F. Niezer Faculty Fellow in the Maurer School of Law, is the author of the book “Killing McVeigh: The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure” and has written widely on responses of victims' families to the death penalty. To speak with her, contact Ken Turchi at 812-856-4044 or [email protected] or James Boyd at 812-855-0156 or [email protected].
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