Word: executioner
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The Supreme Court reopened the nation's execution chambers on Wednesday, rejecting a claim by Kentucky inmates - echoed by prisoners across the country - that lethal injection as it is widely practiced is cruel and unusual punishment.
Chief Justice John Roberts observed in his opinion that "some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution," and held that the Constitution condemns only "substantial" or "objectively intolerable" risks. Six other justices shared the chief's conclusion that Kentucky's approach passed muster, but only two of...
Still, the two colleagues Roberts drew to his opinion were more than any of the other justices could do. Justice Clarence Thomas held, alone, that the Constitution forbids only those execution methods that are expressly intended to inflict severe pain. For example: "'gibbeting,' or hanging the condemned in an iron...
Justice Antonin Scalia's solo opinion insisted that courts should not decide these issues; legislatures should. Justice John Paul Stevens, while agreeing that the case at hand was lame - since lethal injection is entirely designed NOT to be cruel and there is skimpy evidence that this theoretically possible kind of...
Even the two dissenters, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter, weren't much comfort to the inmates. Their opinion would have sent the case back to the Kentucky courts to decide whether the execution team should use some test - like checking the condemned prisoner's reflexes by brushing his...