Posted by Dave on 05/03/08 at 08:44:40 am
Categories: Capital Punishment

I am a bit behind on this, but states are beginning to set new execution dates after the recent Supreme Court decision.

After Hiatus, States Set Wave of Executions:

Here in the nation’s leading death-penalty state, and some of the 35 others with capital punishment, execution dockets are quickly filling up.

Less than three weeks after a United States Supreme Court ruling ended a seven-month moratorium on lethal injections, at least 14 execution dates have been set in six states between May 6 and October.

“The Supreme Court essentially blessed their way of doing things,” said Douglas A. Berman, a professor of law and a sentencing expert at Ohio State University. “So in some sense, they’re back from vacation and ready to go to work.”

The courts decided that the current methods used for killing people does not violate the 8th Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Because somehow killing people is not cruel and unusual. Or something like that.

In a nutshell, what this really means is that more people are going to die.

Workers World has more.

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