Lethal injection is considered to be a more humane alternative to the electric chair. But the US Supreme Court hears arguments in a case that states that if lethal injection is poorly administered, it can be barbaric. Clarence Hill, a condemned man, is arguing that it would be unconstitutional for Florida to execute him with what he contends are its flawed lethal injection procedures.

Death penalty is unconstitutional, and that the Supreme Court should spare Hill’s life.

Physicians for Human Rights warned that if the chemicals weren’t used correctly, they could “cause an inmate to suffocate, while consciously experiencing the blinding pain of” a coronary arrest.

Several justices have concluded that the death penalty is unconstitutional, including Justice Harry Blackmun, who famously declared, “From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.” We agree with Justice Blackmun and hope that the tinkering will stop and that the law of the land will recognise that the Eighth Amendment bars capital punishment completely.

But even justices who think the Constitution permits capital punishment should find that lethal injections that torture prisoners in the process of killing them are unconstitutional.