Clarence E. Hill v. James McDonough

Clarence E. Hill is a Florida death row inmate. On January 20, 2006, Hill brought this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to enjoin the State of Florida from carrying out his execution by lethal injection on January 24, 2006. He alleged that the State’s execution procedure constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments because the first drug to be injected, sodium pentothal, would not suffice as an anesthetic to render painless the administration of the second and third drugs that would cause his death. That is, he could remain conscious and suffer severe pain as…