On November 22, 2006, the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the state's use of a three-drug lethal injection does not violate the US Constitution because the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment "does not require a complete absence of pain." The decision upheld a lower court ruling in 2005 which held that conflicting medical testimony prevents the court from concluding that death row inmates "categorically" feel pain during their executions.

Learn more about lethal injection from the JURIST news archive, and more about the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment from Cornell University's Legal Information Institute.