The inmate, Michael Nance, had challenged the lethal injection protocol and sought to die by firing squad, which is not an authorised method in the state
The US Supreme Court. AFP
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favour of letting a death row inmate die by firing squad in Georgia. The inmate, Michael Nance, had challenged the state’s lethal injection protocol and sought to die by firing squad, which is not an authorised method in the state.
According to a report by CNN, the court said the inmate could bring the challenge under a federal civil rights law that allows individuals to seek remedies when their Constitutional rights are violated.
The decision could make it easier for inmates to challenge their potential execution method.
Let’s see how the US executes its prisoners and why this one is different:
Capital punishment in the US
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), capital punishment is currently authorised in 27 states, by the federal government and the US military.
In recent years, New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia have legislatively abolished the death penalty, replacing it with a sentence of life imprisonment with no possibility for parole.
The Nebraska Legislature also abolished capital punishment in 2015, but it was reinstated by a statewide vote in 2016. Additionally, courts in Washington and Delaware recently ruled that the states’ capital punishment laws are unconstitutional. States across the country will continue to debate its fairness, reliability and cost of implementation.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been 1547 executions since 1976.
Methods of execution
All 27 states use lethal injection as the primary method of execution. Texas was the first state to use the method, in 1982.
As per NCSL, in 2021, South Carolina became the first state to depart from using lethal injection as a primary execution method. It is the only state in which electrocution is primary, with firing squad and lethal injection, authorised by statute as secondary methods of execution.
While electrocution is the primary method of execution only in the state of South Carolina, it is an authorised method of execution in seven more states.
Even though lethal gas is authorised in seven states, it is not the primary method of execution in any states. Hanging is authorised only in the states of Delaware. Earlier New Hampshire and Washington also allowed it before abolishing it.
Death by a firing squad is authorised in four states, but it is not the primary method in any of these places.
What is the case of Michael Nance?
As per the CNN report, Nance stole a car and drove it to a bank in Georgia in 1993 with the purpose of looting it.
Carrying a revolver and wearing a ski mask, Nance demanded the tellers put money in a pillowcase.
The tellers slipped two dye packets into the bag which released red dye and tear gas when Nance returned to his car. He abandoned the money, ran to a nearby parking lot and shot an innocent bystander, Gabor Balogh, in an attempted carjacking.
Nance was sentenced to death in 2002 and was to be executed by the use of lethal injection.
Nance has argued in his petition that due to compromised veins sedatives used in the lethal injection protocol would fail to “render him unconscious”, which could cause “intense pain and burning.”
He insisted that execution by a firing squad would lead to a “swift and virtually painless” death, as reported by Fox32.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the 5-4 majority in Thursday’s opinion that Nance can challenge the state’s method of execution through a civil rights lawsuit.
“A death row inmate may attempt to show that a State’s planned method of execution, either on its face or as applied to him, violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment,” Kagan wrote.
As per the CNN report, Kagan said that the law at issue, Section 1983, “broadly authorizes suit against state officials for the deprivation of any rights secured by the Constitution.”
“Read literally,” she said, “that language would apply to all of a prisoner’s constitutional claims.”
With inputs from agencies
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