Supreme Court affirms capital punishment despite risks of pain.
"The Eighth Amendment does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority in the death row appeal by Missouri convict Russell Bucklew. The amendment prohibits the infliction of "cruel and unusual punishments."Bucklew, 50, suffers from a rare condition known as cavernous hemangioma, which causes blood-filled tumors to grow on his head, face, neck and mouth.
Gorsuch said unconstitutional punishments are those that "intensify the sentence of death with a 'superaddition' of 'terror, pain, or disgrace.'" He ruled that Missouri's plan to execute Bucklew with pentobarbital would not.joined the majority opinion.Bucklew was convicted in the 1996 kidnapping and rape of his ex-girlfriend; murder of her boyfriend; and shootout with police.
"The question is not … whether a punishment is deliberately inflicted to cause unnecessary pain, but rather whether we would today consider the punishment to cause excessive suffering," Breyer said.
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