SCOTUS to review lethal injection protocols with Kentucky case

I spoke too soon when I said here that the ACCA cases were the only notable sentencing cases in the big group of SCOTUS cert grants today.  In addition, the Supreme Court has taken up Baze v. Rees, 07-5439, a case from Kentucky which, according to this SCOTUSblog post, will finally enable the Court to address on the merits “the constitutionality of execution by lethal drugs when the protocol poses a risk of pain and suffering.”  (Thanks to commentors to my prior post spotlighting Baze.)

This is huge news which could (and probably should) lead to a de facto moratorium on all lethal injection executions nationwide until the Supreme Court issues a ruling (which might not come until June 2008).  I’ll have a lot more to say about this very important cert grant in future posts, but for now here are some links a small sample of my copious coverage of all the lethal injection litigation that has been percolating around the country over the last two years:

• Notable ruling on constitutionality of lethal injection (discussing 2005 state ruling in Baze)
• A new lethal injection twist in Kentucky
• My lethal injection piece on SSRN
• A bit of lethal injection history
• NYT piece on lethal injection
• A call for truly public executions?
• Federal district judge halts executions in Tennessee
• Shouldn’t all executions now be recorded on video?
• A lethal injection roadtrip
• Another view of viewing an execution
• NY Times against hiding the executioner
• Academic insights on the lethal injection scrummages

UPDATE:  Thanks to SCOTUSblog, everyone can now check out the cert petition in Baze along with this supplemental filing.