The Basics of Baze

For those of you who don't read blogs about death penalty issues (aka regular people), you may have seen some stories about a Supreme Court case that is addressing the death penalty. This increased coverage of the death penalty has led to a bit of confusion about what exactly is being considered and what it could mean to those of us outside the courtroom. So consider this post an admittedly oversimplified rundown of what is going on.

The case being considered, Baze v. Rees, deals with Kentucky's lethal injection procedure. Essentially, the Supreme Court is deciding whether the three drug cocktail currently used to carry out executions risks a degree of pain that would violate the Eighth Amendment and whether, in light of other possible available methods of execution, this specific combination of drugs is acceptable. So, there are two questions: is this method acceptable on its own? AND does the Supreme Court have to mandate a 'less risky/less painful' method to adhere to the Constitution? (legal wonk note: while these two questions cover the concepts being addressed technically there are three legal questions still before the Supreme Court, Qs 1-3 on pgs. ii-iii of the original petition found here)

The oral arguments for the case have been presented and a decision is pending.

Since the case was accepted by the Supreme Court back on September 25, 2007 there has been a de facto moratorium in place. That is to say that the Supreme Court has not made any official statement that executions are on hold, but it has granted every single petition to stay an execution since it agreed to hear Baze. So, in this sense there is not a straightforward moratorium in the way that InCASE uses the term (a predetermined time period without executions during which issues are addressed), but the effect is the same.

So, what are the possible results? There are a plethora of possibilities but they fall into a few categories:

1. The Supreme Court decides that the current procedure and drug combination is perfectly within Constitutional parameters. Nothing changes and executions resume.
2. The Supreme Court decides that some change in procedure is necessary. As a result, individual states that are affected propose and pass revised, Constitutionally-acceptable, execution protocols.
3. The Supreme Court decides, totally out of left field, that they will use Baze to address larger death penalty issues dealing with the Eighth Amendment. Executions are halted. (ed note: this has no real chance of happening but it's listed for the sake of being thorough)
   

Hopefully this has cleared a few things up, while simultaneously demonstrating how complicated this issue is. For those who want a bit more in depth, check out the following links:

lethalinjection.org (maintained diligently by Berkeley Law School's Death Penalty Clinic)
SCOTUS Wiki: Baze v. Rees
Death Penalty Information Center - Lethal Injection