Enlarge image
US Supreme Court in Washington: Conservative judges have a majority in the Supreme Court
Photo:
ANDREW KELLY / REUTERS
Ernest Johnson was sentenced to death 26 years ago in the US state of Missouri.
The judgment has not yet been carried out.
Now the convicted murderer has tried legally to change the method of execution and has failed.
The Supreme Court has denied a motion by the death row inmate that he should have been executed by shooting instead of lethal injection.
Johnson's request is based on his medical history.
The 60-year-old suffers from epilepsy, for which a brain tumor is responsible.
In addition, his brain suffered further damage from a surgical procedure.
Johnson believes the lethal injection would cause significant pain.
This is incompatible with the US Constitution, he argued.
This prohibits cruel and unusual punishments.
Johnson believes execution by shooting would save him pain.
The majority of the judges in the Supreme Court disagreed with this line of argument.
Liberal judges voted in favor of the motion
The US Supreme Court consists of nine judges and has a conservative majority of 6-3.
The three liberal representatives of the Supreme Court had voted in favor of Johnson's motion.
"Missouri is now free to execute Johnson in a manner that, based on current knowledge, must be assumed to amount to torture due to his unique state of health," said liberal judge Sonia Sotomayor, criticizing the decision.
Johnson killed three people in a robbery on a gas station in 1994.
A year later he was found guilty of three murders and sentenced to death.
In the US state of Missouri, lethal injection is the most common method of carrying out the death penalty.
However, various pharmaceutical companies refuse to use their substances for the execution of the death penalty.
Including the Pfizer Group, which issued a corresponding regulation in 2016.
Some US states therefore also allow executions by firearm.
Missouri is not one of them so far.
asc / Reuters