Reid v. Johnson.

• Position: CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT - Brief Article

U.S. District Court

LETHAL INJECTION

Reid v. Johnson, 333 F.Supp.2d 543 (E.D.Va. 2004). A death row inmate filed a [section] 1983 action alleging the means by which the state intended to carry out his execution violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The district court dismissed the action and the inmate appealed. The appeals court reversed and remanded. On remand, the district court denied the inmate's motion for a preliminary injunction. The court found that the inmate was not likely to suffer irreparable harm as the result of the state's mechanism for carrying out the sentence of death by lethal injection. The court held that the possibility that there could be some minor difficulty locating the vein for...