Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-7955_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 106.0

10 

GLOSSIP v. GROSS 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

Id.,  at  97.  The  District  Court  concluded  that  the  State 
“ha[d]  affirmatively  shown  that  sodium  thiopental  and 
pentobarbital, the only alternatives to which the [petition­
ers]  have  even  alluded,  are  not  available  to  the  [State].” 
Id., at 98. 

The  Court  of  Appeals  for  the  Tenth  Circuit  affirmed. 
Warner v. Gross, 776 F. 3d 721 (2015).  It, like the District 
Court, held that petitioners were unlikely to prevail on the
merits  because  they  had  failed  to  prove  the  existence  of 
“ ‘known and available alternatives.’ ”  Id., at 732.  “In any
event,” the court continued, it was unable to conclude that 
the  District  Court’s  factual  findings  had  been  clearly 
erroneous,  and  thus  petitioners  had  also  “failed  to  estab­
lish  that  the  use  of  midazolam  in  their  executions  . . . 
creates a demonstrated risk of severe pain.”  Ibid. 

Petitioners  and  Charles  Warner  filed  a  petition  for 
certiorari and an application to stay their executions.  The 
Court  denied  the  stay  application,  and  Charles  Warner
was executed on January 15, 2015.  See Warner v.  Gross, 
574  U. S.  ___  (2015)  (SOTOMAYOR,  J.,  dissenting  from
denial  of  certiorari).  The  Court  subsequently  granted 
certiorari and, at the request of the State, stayed petition­
ers’ pending executions. 

II 
I begin with the second of the Court’s two holdings: that
the  District  Court  properly  found  that  petitioners  did  not
demonstrate  a  likelihood  of  showing  that  Oklahoma’s 
execution  protocol  poses  an  unconstitutional  risk  of  pain. 
In  reaching  this  conclusion,  the  Court  sweeps  aside  sub­
stantial  evidence  showing  that,  while  midazolam  may  be 
able  to  induce  unconsciousness,  it  cannot  be  utilized  to 
maintain unconsciousness in the face of agonizing stimuli. 
Instead, like the District Court, the Court finds comfort in 
Dr. Evans’ wholly unsupported claims that 500 milligrams
of  midazolam  will  “paralyz[e]  the  brain.”    In  so  holding,