Supreme Court upholds S.C. execution

COLUMBIA, S.C., March 19 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision Friday to allow the execution in Columbia, S.C., of a man convicted of killing a police officer.

The court overturned a decision by the U.S. District Court in South Carolina halting the execution, which was scheduled for late Friday.

Attorneys for David Clayton Hill had asked for the death sentence to be overturned on grounds that lethal injections are unconstitutional because they constitute cruel and unusual punishment, reported The State newspaper in Columbia.

Jerome Nickerson, representing Hill, said the state has not given the condemned enough sedative in some cases and as a result some men might have been conscious at the time the lethal injection was administered.

Lawyers said Chief Justice William Rehnquist could have delayed the execution, but it took the entire court to decide whether Hill would be put to death.

Hill, 39, was sentenced to death for the 1994 shooting death of Maj. Spencer Guerry.

South Carolina began using lethal injections in 1995 as an alternative to the electric chair.