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Justices make key death penalty rulingsDecisions affect lethal injection challenges, DNA testing
 Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the key decisions affecting adminstration of the death penalty. 
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSWASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court opened the door Monday to constitutional challenges to lethal injection, the method used by most states and the federal government to execute death row inmates. In an unanimous decision, the court allowed those condemned to die to make last-minute claims that the chemicals used are too painful -- and therefore amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution's Eighth Amendment. The court's ruling leaves unanswered broader questions about the chemicals used in lethal injections around the country and whether they cause excruciating pain. In a second death penalty case, the court ruled 5-3 that a Tennessee death-row inmate can use DNA evidence to attempt to show his innocence 20 years after he was convicted of murdering a neighbor. (Full story) The lethal injection ruling sets the stage for a nationwide legal battle over that subject, with the country's 3,300 death row inmates armed with a new tool to contest how they are put to death. Justices have never ruled on the constitutionality of a specific type of execution. A constitutional showdown over lethal injection might be the next big death penalty case. The winner in Monday's decision was Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill, who was strapped to a gurney with lines running into his arms to deliver the drugs when the Supreme Court in January intervened and blocked the execution. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the court, said that while Hill and other inmates can file special appeals, they will not be always entitled to delays in their executions. "Both the state and the victims of crime have an important interest in the timely enforcement of a sentence," he wrote. Hill, convicted of killing a police officer, had run out of regular appeals so he went to court using a civil rights law claiming that his constitutional rights would be violated by Florida's lethal injection drug protocol. The court's decision renews his bid to have Florida change its chemical combination. The decision is setback for Florida and other states that will have to defend more last-minute filings from inmates. More than two dozen states had filed arguments at the court seeking the opposite outcome. They said dragged-out appeals jeopardize justice for victims' families. Lethal injection is the main method used by every state that has capital punishment except Nebraska. Nebraska still has the electric chair, although that, too, is being contested. Kennedy said that Hill is not claiming that he cannot be executed, only that he should not be forced into a painful execution. "Hill's challenge appears to leave the state free to use an alternative lethal injection procedure," Kennedy wrote. Justices seemed worried about the possibility of pain when they took up Hill's case in April. Justice John Paul Stevens told Florida's lawyer that their procedure would be banned for use to euthanize cats and dogs. Following the Supreme Court's intervention in the Hill case, executions were stopped in California, Maryland and Missouri. The case was one of several major death penalty appeals to come before a court that has two new members. Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote the court's 2004 ruling in its last lethal injection case. Justices said then that an Alabama death row inmate could pursue a last-ditch claim that his death by lethal injection would be unconstitutionally cruel because of his damaged veins. In Monday's ruling, Kennedy wrote that the court was only following precedent set in that case. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 
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