Jurist

A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma [official website] ruled Monday that Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol protocol [JURIST report] is constitutional. The ruling [AP report] has effectively allowed the state to continue with the scheduled executions of four death row inmates beginning in early 2015. The state was forced to examine the constitutionality of its lethal injection protocol after the inmates scheduled for execution asked for a preliminary injunction, arguing that one of the drugs the state uses as part of the lethal injection protocol would subject them and others to cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of their Eighth Amendment [text] rights. The court ruled that the lethal injection protocol does not subject inmates on death row to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.