NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - High Court Debates Lethal Injections

High Court Debates Lethal Injections

FRANKFORT, Ky. - The nation's highest court heard arguments Monday on whether to ban the most common method of capital punishment.

At issue, is whether lethal injection, as administered in Kentucky, is cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of the Constitution.

How the could rules could affect Tennessee and almost every state that has the death penalty.

Two Kentucky inmates brought the suit, questioning the drug cocktail used during the execution process. 

The death penalty is always a controversial issue, whether a state uses the electric chair or lethal injection.

"The drug protocol is just really problematic and it seems to absolutely cause a risk of cruel and unusual punishment," said Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing.

The justices took up that very issue.

The so-called "three drug cocktail" can, in some cases, cause extreme pain.  The first drug knocks out an inmate and the second paralyzes them.

"And the third, potassium chloride, stops the heart and it's a very painful drug as it's going through the body," Rector said. "If someone's not anesthetized properly, they are in excruciating pain."

That's the inmates' attorneys will argue.

"It's another delay, that's what it's all about," said Verna Wyatt, a victim's rights advocate.

"Is it about cruel and unusual, lethal injection being cruel and unusual?" she said. "Hey, the Supreme Court has upheld the electric chair."

She feels whatever the court decides, it will cause delays in Tennessee. She said that's more of the same when it comes to the death penalty.

"I think it's almost time we say this is no longer justice for the victims," she said. "It's not fair for the victims. If we're not going to carry out these death sentences then we need to look at another way of punishing these people who do this..

Whether it's lethal injection, or the electric chair, "as a public policy, it doesn't work," Rector said.

Supreme Court justices seem divided over the issue.

Justice John Paul Stevens said he's "terribly troubled" that the method could result in excruciating pain.

But fellow justice Antonin Scalia is suggesting he'll uphold Kentucky's method of capital punishment. He contends "there is no painless requirement" in the Constitution.

New Jersey eliminated the death penalty. It was the first state to do so in 40 years. Inmates sentenced to death in New Jersey will receive life sentences without parole.