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Page Number: 6.0

2 

GLOSSIP v. GROSS 

Opinion of the Court 

commit clear error when it found that the prisoners failed
to  establish  that  Oklahoma’s  use  of  a  massive  dose  of 
midazolam  in  its  execution  protocol  entails  a  substantial 
risk of severe pain. 

I 

A 

The  death  penalty  was  an  accepted  punishment  at  the
time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Bill  of
Rights.  In that era, death sentences were usually carried
out  by  hanging.    The  Death  Penalty  in  America:  Current
Controversies  4  (H.  Bedau  ed.  1997).    Hanging  remained
the  standard  method  of  execution  through  much  of  the
19th  century,  but  that  began  to  change  in  the  century’s
later years.  See Baze, supra, at 41–42.  In the 1880’s, the 
Legislature of the State of New York appointed a commis-
sion  to  find  “ ‘the  most  humane  and  practical  method 
known  to  modern  science  of  carrying  into  effect  the  sen-
tence of death in capital cases.’ ”  In re Kemmler, 136 U. S. 
436, 444 (1890).  The commission recommended electrocu-
tion, and in 1888, the Legislature enacted a law providing 
for  this  method  of  execution.  Id.,  at  444–445.  In  subse-
quent years, other States followed New York’s lead in the 
“ ‘belief that electrocution is less painful and more humane
than hanging.’ ”  Baze, 553 U. S., at 42 (quoting Malloy v. 
South Carolina, 237 U. S. 180, 185 (1915)).

In  1921,  the  Nevada  Legislature  adopted  another  new
method of execution, lethal gas, after concluding that this
was “the most humane manner known to modern science.” 
State v. Jon, 46 Nev. 418, 437, 211 P. 676, 682 (1923).  The 
Nevada  Supreme  Court  rejected  the  argument  that  the
use of lethal gas was unconstitutional, id., at 435–437, 211 
P.,  at  681–682,  and  other  States  followed  Nevada’s  lead, 
see,  e.g.,  Ariz.  Const.,  Art.  XXII,  §22  (1933);  1937  Cal.
Stats.  ch.  172,  §1;  1933  Colo.  Sess.  Laws  ch.  61,  §1;  1955
Md. Laws ch. 625, §1, p. 1017; 1937 Mo. Laws p. 222, §1.