The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday morning on Oklahoma’s death penalty protocol and whether the use of a new sedative might cause cruel and unusual punishment.
Justices took turns asking heated questions to both Robin Konrad, who represents the Oklahoma death row inmates, and Oklahoma Solicitor General Patrick Wyrick.
Justice Anthony Kennedy is often the pivotal vote in close cases. He remained quiet through the hearing and did little to reveal which way he was leaning.
Megan McCracken is an advisor for the petitioners’ attorneys. She says Justice Sonia Sotomayor had trouble accepting Wyrick’s claims that midazolam was a proper lethal injection drug.
“She expressed concern about the reliability of the state's expert testimony, and the significance of that is the trial court relied on that testimony for its fact finding,” McCracken said.
Sotomayor went on to say she could not believe anything Wyrick said without “checking the context.”
The petitioners' attorney Robin Konrad also faced questions from Justice Samuel Alito about the “guerilla warfare" of death penalty opponents in recent years.
The hearing comes exactly one year after inmate Clayton Lockett writhed and moaned on the gurney for more than 40 minutes. Petitioners claim the sedative midazolam does not routinely cause a “deep, coma-like state.”
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