The US Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will not be hearing the case of Ernest Johnson, a death-row inmate who asked to be executed by firing squad rather than lethal injection due to his medical condition, the court announced on Monday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th May, 2021) The US Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will not be hearing the case of Ernest Johnson, a death-row inmate who asked to be executed by firing squad rather than lethal injection due to his medical condition, the court announced on Monday.
By declining to hear the case, the Supreme Court allowed the decision by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to stand. The latter denied Johnson's request to be executed by a firing squad or nitrogen gas.
Johnson's claim that he cannot be executed using the standard method of lethal injection due to a seizure disorder that would likely cause him extreme seizures during the process was upheld by the court in 2018.
However, the court ruled the following year the state of Missouri could deny him the use of nitrogen gas as an alternative method of execution because it lacks a proven track record. Johnson then requested to be executed by firing squad, which he argues has such a proven track record.
Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor wrote in her dissenting opinion that the US state of Missouri is now free to execute Johnson in a manner that is akin to torture given his unique medical condition.
"To dispose of the case more quickly, the Eighth Circuit has sacrificed the Eighth Amendment's chief concern for preventing cruel and unusual punishment," Sotomayor wrote.
