Baze v. Rees
Case Date: 07/10/2025
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Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35 (2008), was a United States Supreme Court case. The court agreed to hear the appeal of two men, Ralph Baze and Thomas Bowling, who were sentenced to death in Kentucky. The men argue that executing them by lethal injection would violate the 8th Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Under court precedent, lethal injection must not inflict "unnecessary pain". The men's attorneys argued that the chemicals used to kill them carried an unnecessary risk of inflicting pain during the process. The case had nationwide implications because the specific "cocktail" used for lethal injections in Kentucky is the same that virtually all states use for lethal injection. An effective moratorium on executions in the United States had taken place since certiorari was granted in this case.[1]
The Court heard oral arguments on January 7, 2008. On April 16, the Court rejected the challenge thereby upholding Kentucky's method of lethal injection by a vote of 7-2. John Paul Stevens wrote a concurrence in the judgement which attacked the thesis of the death penalty while Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.[2]
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