The U.S. Supreme Court has ended its session and will reconvene the first Monday In October.
In the final round of decisions issued yesterday…the court upheld the use of a controversial drug for lethal injections, ruling that it doesn’t violate the constitution.
The lethal injecting decision came down to a 5-4, narrow vote by the court, and according to WGBH Legal Analyst Daniel Medwed , it ‘upholds a particular use of lethal drugs in Oklahoma and three other states, but it’s also a broad signal that a majority of the court wants to vest discretion over the death penalty in the hands of the states, and is not willing to find the death penalty unconstitutional.”
Medwed discusses with WGBH Morning Edition host Bob Seay how this decision will impact the Massachusetts case against Gary Lee Sampson, who was convicted of three murders in 2001 and is being re-tried, and Boston Marathon Bombing Dhjokar Tsarnaev, who was sentenced to death on June 24 for the attacks in April 2013.
Both men were convicted under federal law.
According to Medwed, “ under the federal death penalty… the method of execution used is the same method deployed in the state in which the defendant is sentence. Medwed says, “since Massachusetts doesn’t have capital punishment at the state level there’s some uncertainty, a lack of clarity as to whether or not his case will have any impact on any execution on either of them."
To listen to Northeastern Law Professor Medwed's comments on the other final rulings by the high court click on the audio file above.
