WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court’s stark divide on the issue of capital punishment was on full display Monday as the conservative majority ruled against a Missouri death-row inmate who said his rare medical condition could mean an agonizing death that would violate constitutional standards against cruel and unusual punishment.
That brought a biting rejoinder from the dissenting liberals, who additionally referenced a decision in February in which the conservatives denied the last-minute stay request of an Alabama inmate who was not allowed to have an imam at his side at his execution. Justice Neil Gorsuch But Kennedy has been replaced by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who voted with Gorsuch and the rest of the court’s conservatives to let the execution move forward.
That would subject him to “constitutionally impermissible suffering,” Breyer wrote. “The majority holds that the state may execute him anyway. In my view, that holding violates the clear command of the Eighth Amendment. ”Gorsuch and Kavanaugh made up the majority along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.