Nevada high court won’t consider lethal injection

The Nevada Supreme Court won’t consider an inmate’s challenge to the death penalty on grounds that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

A three-judge panel, in a 2-1 decision issued Wednesday, rejected a petition by Antoine Williams, who is questioning the lethal injection of three drugs by untrained prison officials.

Williams was initially sentenced to death for the 1994 robbery and killing of an elderly Las Vegas couple. But the state Supreme Court in 2007 overturned the death sentence and ordered a new penalty hearing, which is pending.

The panel’s majority ruled that since Williams does not currently face a death sentence, his challenge to the constitutionality of lethal injection is unwarranted.

The last execution in Nevada was in 2006.