High court to hear injection challenge

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it had agreed to decide whether death by lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

For the first time in more than a century, the court plans to consider whether a method of execution is constitutional, Scotusblog reported. In 1879, the court upheld the use of the firing squad in the Utah Territory.

The appeal was filed on behalf of two inmates on Kentucky’s death row, Ralph Baze and Thomas Bowling Jr., The New York Times said. The Kentucky Supreme Court stayed Baze’s execution, which had been scheduled for Tuesday night.

Lethal injection, by far the most commonly used method of execution in the United States, was adopted as a more merciful alternative to the electric chair, gas chamber and hanging. But critics say that the method has not been updated since the 1970s and is one now banned for use on animals.