The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld lethal injection to carry out the death penalty in the United States, despite questions over drug cocktails.
Campaigners are hoping a dissent from a key justice indicates that America's highest court is getting ready to address the broader question of the constitutionality of capital punishment.
Our U.S. correspondent Priscilla Huff reports:
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled five to four that inmates from Oklahoma state did not prove their case,
and that lethal injection remains a legal method to carry out the death penalty in the United States.
The inmates argued that a specific drug, midazolam, was inadequate, and therefore unconstitutional because a person might experience pain to the point of cruel and unusual suffering, thus violating their constitutional rights.
American states have had trouble obtaining the right mix of drugs to conduct lethal injections because European pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell.
Danielle Fulfs is with the Washington State Campaign to end the Death Penalty
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But others note, the ruling can be seen as a big win for states still interested in the death penalty.
From the documents released by the U=S Supreme Court, it appears that seven of the nine justices do not question the essential constitutionality of the death penalty.
However, efforts to end the death penalty appear to be gaining some traction.
Earlier this month, Republican lawmakers in politically conservative Nebraska ended the death penalty, saying it is a waste of tax payer money and not an effective crime deterrant.
Campaigners such as Danielle Fulfs point that the death penalty is often applied in an arbitrary way in the United States.
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And that's why they are putting some hope into the dissent written by Justice Stephen Breyer
He wrote that it is highly likely that capital punishment does violate the eighth amendement to the U.S. Constitution - which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
He and Justice Ruth Bader ginsberg are calling for a full briefing on the basic question of whether the U-S constitution permits the death penalty - no matter the method - lethal injection, the firing squad or the electric chair.
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