Court to decide lethal injection, voter ID cases

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections in the case of two death row inmates from Kentucky.

The high court will hear a challenge from convicted killer Ralph Baze and fellow death row inmate Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr.

The two inmates sued Kentucky in 2004, claiming lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Baze's execution had been scheduled for Tuesday night, but the Kentucky Supreme Court halted the proceedings earlier this month.

"This is probably one of the most important cases in decades as it relates to the death penalty," said David Barron, the public defender who represents Baze and Bowling.

Justices also agreed to decide whether voter identification laws unfairly deter poor and minority Americans from voting, stepping into a contentious partisan issue in advance of the 2008 elections.

The justices will hear arguments early next year in a challenge to an Indiana law that requires voters to present photo ID before casting their ballots. The state has defended the law as a way to combat voter fraud.

The state Democratic party and civil rights groups complained that the law unfairly targets poor and minority voters, without any evidence that in-person voter fraud exists in Indiana.

Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona and Michigan, but struck down Missouri's. In June, the Georgia Supreme Court threw out a challenge to that state's voter ID law but sidestepped a decision on whether the requirement was constitutional.

The Indiana law enacted in 2005 was upheld by a federal judge and by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. Before the law's passage, an Indiana voter had only to sign a poll book at the polling place, where a photo copy of the voter's signature was kept on file for comparison.

"The purpose of the Indiana law is to reduce voting fraud, and voting fraud impairs the right of legitimate voters to vote by diluting their votes," Judge Richard Posner said in his majority opinion.

But in a dissent, Judge Terence Evans said, "Let's not beat around the bush. The Indiana voter photo ID law is a not-too-thinly veiled attempt to discourage election-day turnout by folks believed to skew Democratic."

The voter ID challenge was among 17 new cases accepted by the court in advance of the start of its new term on Monday.

The court also agreed to review the case of a man who successfully challenged a drug charge arising from his illegal arrest for driving on a suspended license.

Many state and federal courts say that failing to follow state law in making an arrest does not require that subsequently seized evidence be suppressed. But the Virginia Supreme Court ruled otherwise in the case of David Lee Moore, and state officials asked the justices to consider the issue.

Two police detectives stopped Moore for driving on a suspended license, but under Virginia law they should have issued him a summons and released him rather than taking him into custody.

he Virginia Supreme Court said the officers could not lawfully conduct the search that followed his arrest, which turned up crack cocaine.

A trial judge ruled against Moore's challenge to the drug charge and he was convicted and sentenced to 3½ years in prison. The Virginia Supreme Court subsequently ordered the charge dismissed and Moore was freed.