Remember to let it under your skin....then you can start to make it better.

So school was over on May 12th. Unfortunately, that by no means implies that the school year is over. In law school there's this thing called law review that everyone knows is a good thing to be on, but everybody hates being on it. You spend your weekends (they start at 6:00 p.m. on Friday night and go until midnight, every Friday) editing papers from professors and lawyers from around the country that want to get published in your little book called the "Hamline Law Review." (every law school has a law review and most have a legal journal) The only reason you want to be on this horrible editing crew is that employers think it means you're a good writer, so like other hoops in life, you jump through it.
Two avenues will get you onto law review, you can either finish at the top 10 percent of the class or you can do a writing competition. The fascinating part about this is that grades don't come out until after the submission deadline, so you have to bite the bullet and do the writing competition. The nice part is that only about 10 people out of 200 do the writing competition because it's summer and most people say "screw it" (there's no limit on how many people can get picked).
The writing competition involves writing a 15 to 20 page double-spaced paper on one of four topics. So, what was my topic that I chose? Well, I shall tell you.
Ralph Baze had outstanding warrants for crimes. A police officer came to his house and told Baze that he would be coming back with backup to arrest him. So Baze waited across the street with his SKS assault rifle and had his wife distract the officers. Baze then shot them both in the back and while Officer Briscoe was on the ground struggling for life, Baze executed him. He was convicted of two murders.
Thomas Bowling accidentally struck a parked car containing the Earley family. Bowling exited his vehicle, shot the mom and the dad, and got back in his vehicle. He exited again, to check and make sure they were dead, and then drove away.
Both Bowling and Baze were convicted and sentenced to death. Under Kentucky law the method was lethal injection by a three-drug "cocktail" of the following:
1. an injection of Sodium Thiopental (Pentothal) an anesthetic that is powerful enough to render the inmate unconsciousness
2. Saline flush to clear the needles.
3. Injection of a neuro-muscular blocker Pancuronium Bromide (paralytic) to paralyze the inmate.
4. Saline flush to clear the needles
5. Injection of potassium chloride to cause cardiac arrest. (this drug interferes with the electrical functioning of the heart)

Baze and Bowling challenged Kentucky's protocol (and most states follow this protocol) because of risks that they may not be unconscious because doctors do not conduct lethal injection. The concern is that if the pancuronium bromide is injected (paralyzing the subject) and then the potassium chloride is injected, the condemned could suffer excruciating pain since an injection of potassium chloride going through a human is equivalent to having fire coursing through your veins until it hits your heart.
The issue before the United States Supreme Court: Whether Kentucky's lethal injection protocol is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The task: they give all the information you're allowed to draw from. How much? Over the course of two weeks I read 780 pages of printed information (it barely fits in a three-inch binder) including amicus briefs (persuasive petitions telling the Court how to interpret the Amendment, case law dating back to 1876 (Wilkerson v. Utah-are firing squads cruel and unusual punishment is the first method of execution case that was ever before the United States Supreme Court) and secondary sources (articles printed in law reviews from law schools from around the country)

The paper was due today. 14 copies of my 20 page paper detailing how the Supreme Court ruled correctly that Kentucky's protocol is not unconstitutional (even though there is a risk of mistake) but should have used Justice Clarence Thomas' test to determine whether a method of execution is unconstitutional.

Why do you care? You may not. I was just more excited about completing this project over the course of 3 weeks (an equivalent project this year, we were given 2 months) than completing 9 months of school. Plus, I found it fascinating. I hope no one feels like I'm trying to brag, but I'm just so happy to be done and thought you might be interested about what is at the top of the legal issue list for the country and what we talk about in law school. This was a huge case because state courts had been calling for guidance for years on how to determine whether a method of punishment was cruel and unusual. And who would have thought that Kentucky would be at the center of it? Anyway, if you want a copy of it I can send it to you, but I'm not expecting takers mostly because if you didn't find the preceding fascinating, you likely won't find 20 more pages with 150 footnotes fascinating.

Yay, I'm done. "Remember, to let it under your skin then you can start to make it better."

The pictures show what the gurney looks like, what states use what method as their main method (many states, including Utah, California, and Kentucky give the accused a choice between lethal injection and another method), and a needle just for fun.