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US Court Rules Death Penalty Drug Can Be Used

The US Supreme Court has given approval for authorities to resume executing prisoners using a controversial form of lethal injection.

The court ruled 5-4 that the anaesthetic Midazolam did not violate the US Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, delivering a setback to death penalty opponents.

Lawyers for three death row prisoners in Oklahoma had argued the drug was failing to properly sedate condemned men, meaning they had prolonged and painful deaths.

Justice Samuel Alito, on behalf of the court's conservative majority wrote the inmates had failed to show there was an alternative method of execution available that would be less painful.

But another judge, Justice Stephen Breyer, said the court in Washington DC should consider whether the death penalty itself was constitutional.

In April last year convicted killer Clayton Lockett took 43 minutes to die.

An investigation by the state concluded that the problem was caused by a misplaced intravenous drip.

But campaigners say a shortage of suitable lethal injection drugs has led to states experimenting with other unsuitable compounds.

The case was brought in the name of Richard Glossip and two other men in Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

Glossip, who has spoken by telephone to Sky News on several occasions, was due to be executed on 29 January but on 28 January he was given a temporary reprieve until the case was heard in the capital.

Oklahoma could now set his execution date for as early as 5 August although it's unclear whether they have supplies of the lethal injection cocktail.

Reacting to the ruling, Glossip told Sky News: "It's not really a big shock that they (the judges) didn't rule in our favour."

"I'm still fighting for the fact that I'm innocent. It doesn't matter what method you use to execute somebody, you're still trying to execute an innocent man."

Several states have had to put executions on hold because pharmaceutical companies now ban their use for anything other than medical treatment.

Glossip told Sky News in April: "If it's so humane then you have to explain what happened to the guy in Ohio who suffered. You have to explain what happened to the guy in Arizona who suffered for two hours.

"You have to account for (Clayton) Lockett here in Oklahoma who suffered for 45 minutes. If it's so humane why did those people suffer for so long."

During the hearing, one of the justices Elena Kagan said: "It's like being burned alive. We've actually talked about being burned at the stake, and everybody agrees that that's cruel and unusual punishment.

"So suppose that we said, we're going to burn you at the stake, but before we do, we're going to use an anaesthetic of completely unknown properties and unknown effects Maybe you won't feel it, maybe you will. We just can't tell. And you think that that would be okay?"

Glossip was convicted of murdering his boss in 1997.

Justin Sneed, who beat Barry Van Treese to death with a baseball bat, said Glossip had paid him to carry out the murder.

In return for his testimony Sneed was given a life sentence, while the man he implicated received a death sentence. Glossip has always insisted he is innocent.

Even during the capital punishment moratorium in Oklahoma, other states including Texas have continued to execute prisoners using a different type of singe-dose lethal injection.

If Oklahoma had been forced to adopt a new method of execution, it has already voted in favour of using nitrogen gas to kill prisoners.