FindLaw commentary on Hill case

Over at FindLaw at this link, Professor Sherry Colb has a commentary on the Hill case, entitled “Retribution Without Cruelty: The Supreme Court Considers an Eighth Amendment Challenge to Lethal Injections.”  Here are some highlights:

However the Court rules on Hill’s chosen approach to challenging his particular sentence, the issue of whether death by lethal injection violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments is ripe for decision.  Arguments over the legitimacy of lethal injection, moreover, raise a still more fundamental question of what we mean to do when we “punish” a heinous murderer for his crimes….

Regardless of what the Court decides, however, we will continue to be guilty of unforgivable hypocrisy in the administration of our criminal justice system, as long as we pretend that we are engaged in something humane even as the toll of suffering and pain — hidden in plain sight — continues to rise, unabated.

Some related posts:

• Shouldn’t Hill be the very first priority for SCOTUS?
• How could (and should) Congress clean up the lethal injection mess?
• The partial de facto moratorium created by Hill