Nevada man in 11th hour reprieve

Will the Supreme Court outlaw this method of execution?

The Nevada Supreme Court has postponed the execution of a murderer on the day he was due to die by lethal injection.

The execution was suspended pending a decision from the US Supreme Court on the constitutionality of lethal injections.

William Castillo, 34, was sentenced to death as punishment for the murder of an 86-year-old woman in 1995.

If the Supreme Court decides against lethal injections then the method could be outlawed throughout the country.

Mr Castillo was found guilty in 1996 of the murder of Isabel Brendt, a retired Las Vegas teacher.

He burgled Ms Brendt's house before beating her to death with a tyre lever and setting fire to her house.

Cruel and unusual?

His appeal is being mounted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a pressure group opposed to lethal injections.

The ACLU say that lethal injections contravene the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution, which bars "cruel and unusual punishment".

LETHAL INJECTIONS Sodium pentothal - anaesthetic Pancuronium bromide - paralyses entire muscle system Potassium chloride - stops the heart Lethal injection has been used in all but one of 41 executions carried out in the US in 2007 End for lethal injection?

During an execution by lethal injection, prisoners are given three drugs: firstly a sedative, then a drug to paralyse all muscles except the heart, and finally a drug to stop the heart and kill the prisoner.

Campaigners argue that the use of the sedative makes it impossible to determine whether or not the prisoner is suffering pain.

A US Supreme Court ruling on September 25 prompted a number of states to postpone scheduled lethal injections until the Court decides on a test case, which is being brought by two death row inmates from Kentucky.

The Kentucky case is expected to be heard early in 2008.