Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-7955_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 5

Cite as:  576 U. S. ____ (2015) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

No. 14–7955 
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RICHARD E. GLOSSIP, ET AL., PETITIONERS v.
 
KEVIN J. GROSS, ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 

APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
 

[June 29, 2015] 

JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. 
Prisoners  sentenced  to  death  in  the  State  of  Oklahoma 
filed an action in federal court under Rev. Stat. §1979, 42
U. S. C.  §1983,  contending  that  the  method  of  execution
now  used  by  the  State  violates  the  Eighth  Amendment 
because  it  creates  an  unacceptable  risk  of  severe  pain. 
They argue that midazolam, the first drug employed in the 
State’s  current  three-drug  protocol,  fails  to  render  a  per-
son insensate to pain.  After holding an evidentiary hear-
ing,  the  District  Court  denied  four  prisoners’  application 
for  a  preliminary  injunction,  finding  that  they  had  failed 
to  prove  that  midazolam  is  ineffective.  The  Court  of  Ap-
peals  for  the  Tenth  Circuit  affirmed  and  accepted  the 
District  Court’s  finding  of  fact  regarding  midazolam’s
efficacy.

For two independent reasons, we also affirm.  First, the 
prisoners failed to identify a known and available alterna-
tive method of execution that entails a lesser risk of pain, 
a  requirement  of  all  Eighth  Amendment  method-of-
execution claims.  See Baze v. Rees, 553 U. S. 35, 61 (2008) 
(plurality  opinion).    Second,  the  District  Court  did  not