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Death Of The Challenge To Lethal Injection - Missouri's Protocol Deemed Constitutional Yet Again, Tanya M. Maerz

Missouri Law Review

Lethal injection is currently the predominant form of execution nationwide. Most proponents of this method cite the convenience and the humanity of this procedure over past methods of execution. However, lethal injections are fraught with problems such as the specificity and safety of the written procedures themselves, implementation of such procedures, and whether lethal injection and executions in general are constitutional. Most often, prisoners file constitutional challenges to lethal injections under the Eighth Amendment, which prevents imposing cruel and unusual punishment on an American citizen. One of the more recent cases in Missouri cited such a challenge to the implementation …