WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled against limiting the use of the controversial drug midazolam during executions, saying it does not violate the eighth amendment of the US constitution that prohibits cruel or unusual punishments.
Rust-Tierney said the drugs utilized in US lethal injections have been found to cause torture.
“It’s hard to imagine what could be crueler than a prolonged, torturous death, or more unusual, given that 80% of the executions in the United States last year took place in just 3 states,” Rust-Tierney said.
Thirty-one US states still have the death penalty. Texas, Florida, and Missouri had the highest rate of executions in 2014, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
More than 800 people have been executed in the United States over the past 15 years. The largest number of executions, 85, occurred in 2000. Thirty-five people were executed in the United States in 2014.
@Scotus US should be ashamed we still have #DeathPenalty at all! Look at company we are in! @ncadp #CruelAndUnusual pic.twitter.com/mGbvORNiAZ
— Dana Fairbanks, M.D. (@dcfairbank) June 29, 2015
The NCADP is a US advocacy group dedicated to the abolition of the death penalty and includes more than 100 affiliate organizations, according to its website.
