Lethal injection deserves Supreme Court's scrutiny

These are just some of the victims of Ohio's death row inmates; they
were toddlers or teens or well advanced in years when their lives were
cruelly and unnecessarily extinguished.

The pain of these victims and their loved ones is terrible, but it isn't reason enough to kill again.

This page long has opposed the death penalty, because it's impossible
to apply with 100 % certainty of guilt and in full fairness and impartiality.
And though the extent of the unfairness is difficult to judge because
Ohio's courts do not routinely compile sufficient data, a recent
American Bar Association review of actual death penalty convictions in Ohio
finds this data add up to a significant bias: The killer of a white person is
nearly 4 times more likely to draw the death penalty than the killer of a black person.

Further, DNA evidence has opened a disturbing window on to how
frequently the truly innocent have been convicted at trial.

Now, however, there's a more urgent concern for states that continue to
sentence to death. Fortunately, it's one the U.S. Supreme Court recently
agreed to review: Whether the cocktail of three drugs and the manner
used to execute prisoners in Ohio and more than 30 other states violates the
Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

There is compelling evidence to suggest that it does - including the
nearly 90 minutes it took in Ohio last year to jab a shunt into
murderer Joseph Clark's veins as he cried out, "This isn't working!"

Although more investigation is needed, a handful of scientific studies
suggest the three drugs used to anesthetize, then paralyze and kill in
Ohio and elsewhere could be causing pain that the paralytic merely
masks, while the anesthetic wears off too quickly to be of use. In the
Kentucky case the justices will review, defense lawyers argue there are more
humane pharmacological alternatives.

The court has done well to seize the opportunity to discuss the
propriety of a specific too often avoided: the manner of execution.

In Ohio, some among the 20 death row inmates who have joined a separate
federal lawsuit challenging lethal injection as inhumane have had
recent execution dates stayed. That's an insufficient bar.

All executions in Ohio should be halted until this issue can be studied
more intensively, and remedied if necessary.

(source: Editorial, Cleveland Plain Dealer)

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