Baze v. Rees
Q & A
6. Is the decision in Baze likely to determine whether execution by lethal injection is unconstitutional in all cases and under all circumstances?
No. At the most, the Court may decide whether the record developed in the Kentucky case supports the conclusion that the state’s lethal injection protocol violates the Eighth Amendment. The Court may limit its ruling to a clarification of what the proper constitutional standard is for evaluating lethal injection challenges, and then remand the case to the Kentucky courts to evaluate the petitioners’ claims under that standard. In any event, the Court’s decision will allow cases in other jurisdictions to proceed under the now-clarified standard. Lethal injection challenges are generally very fact-specific, and although all States except New Jersey use the same three drugs, they have different administration procedures and different executioners. Therefore the ruling in Baze will not necessarily determine the outcome of ongoing challenges in other states.
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