Baze v. Rees
Q & A
5. Must the Court decide whether Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol violates the Eighth Amendment?
No. It is entirely the choice of the Justices. The briefs filed by the parties and various amici curiae (friends of the court) address the evidence in the Kentucky record. However, the Court could decide to remand Baze to the lower court to apply the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment standard to the existing record or to develop further facts to which the standard will be applied. The Supreme Court’s determination of the proper standard will also allow lethal injection challenges that are still pending in other state and federal courts to proceed so that the lethal injection protocols in each jurisdiction can be measured against a consistent Eighth Amendment standard.
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