Barr v. Purkey

*2595 Two days ago, the Federal Government conducted its first execution in nearly two decades. Today, it will conduct its second. Both cases have come before us with the defendants pointing to what I believe are serious legal defects of a kind that have long plagued the administration of the death penalty in the United States. See Glossip v. Gross , 576 U. S. 863 , 908-948, 135 S.Ct. 2726 , 192 L.Ed.2d 761 (2015) (BREYER, J., dissenting).

The first case, that of Daniel Lewis Lee, revealed the inherent arbitrariness of the death penalty. Lee was sentenced to death and his codefendant to life even…