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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Courts - "Fledgling Kentucky public defender takes case to highest court"

Not only the Indiana voter ID cases, but the Kentucky lethal injection case (see Sept. 28th ILB entry here) will be heard by the SCOTUS next week. Lethal injections will be Monday, Jan. 7th, voter ID will be Wed., Jan. 9th.

Today the AP's Brett Barrouquere has this story. Some quotes:

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- One of the biggest capital punishment cases to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in a generation was put together largely by a young, fresh-out-of-law-school member of Kentucky's overworked and underpaid corps of public defenders.

David Barron, now 29, filed an appeal on behalf of two Kentucky death row inmates, arguing that the three-drug cocktail used in lethal injections can cause excruciating pain, and thus amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.

After three years of long hours on Barron's part, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in the case on Monday. This is the first time in more than a century that the high court will address the legality of a method of execution. Thirty-six states use lethal injection, and executions across the country have come to a halt in the meantime. * * *

The challenge is the ninth case Kentucky's public defenders have gotten before the high court in the past three decades. Among others was the landmark 1986 ruling Batson v. Kentucky, in which the Supreme Court found it unconstitutional to dismiss a juror because of race.

Barron works in the public defender's capital post-conviction unit, a corps of five attorneys who handle appeals for Kentucky's 38 death row inmates.

For this case, the public defender's office is bringing in Donald Verrilli, a Washington lawyer who frequently appears before the high court, to argue the challenge.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 2, 2008 11:58 AM
Posted to Courts in general