U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Stevens: Euthanized Derby Horse Didn’t Get Lethal Injection Drug
Posted May 12, 2008, 07:38 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Justice John Paul Stevens has suggested the euthanized Kentucky Derby horse Eight Bells probably died a more humane death than inmates on death row.
The U.S. Supreme Court justice told an audience of judges and lawyers on Friday that he checked the procedure used to kill the injured horse. He learned it did not receive one of the drugs used in the controversial three-drug cocktail used to kill death row inmates, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.
Stevens drew a round of applause when he made the remark at a conference of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Kentucky. Fifty judges and more than 800 lawyers attended the conference, the Associated Press reports. Stevens handles death penalty applications in the circuit.
Stevens cited precedent when he voted to uphold Kentucky’s three-drug lethal injection method in a Supreme Court decision last month. But in his concurring opinion, Stevens questioned the constitutionality of capital punishment, saying it represents “the pointless and needless extinction of life.”
A hat tip to How Appealing, which posted the story in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
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