By Mark Berman and Robert Barnes | The Washington Post
The Supreme Court’s hearing Wednesday about the constitutionality of a lethal injection procedure turned into a tendentious, almost bitter battle between the court’s conservative and liberal justices.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. accused those of trying to prevent the use of the drug midazolam as part of a lethal injection procedure in Oklahoma of waging a “guerrilla war against the death penalty.” Repeated challenges of lethal injection procedures, he said, were meant only to delay the implementation of executions.
Justice Antonin Scalia agreed, saying the “abolitionist movement” had put pressure on drug manufacturers to stop making available to states drugs that would ensure executions were not needlessly painful.
