Page:Glossip v. Gross.pdf/33

 Cite as: 576 U. S. ____ (2015)

29

Opinion of the Court

12, n. 9. And Arizona used a different two-drug protocol that paired midazolam with hydromorphone, a drug that is not at issue in this case. Ibid. When all of the circumstances are considered, the Lockett and Wood executions have little probative value for present purposes. Finally, we find it appropriate to respond to the principal dissent’s groundless suggestion that our decision is tantamount to allowing prisoners to be “drawn and quartered, slowly tortured to death, or actually burned at the stake.” Post, at 28. That is simply not true, and the principal dissent’s resort to this outlandish rhetoric reveals the weakness of its legal arguments. VI For these reasons, the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit is affirmed. It is so ordered.

—————— medical journal. After the Wood execution, Arizona commissioned an independent assessment of its execution protocol and the Wood execution. According to that report, the IV team leader, medical examiner, and an independent physician all agreed that the dosage of midazolam “would result in heavy sedation.” Ariz. Dept. of Corrections, Assessment and Review of the Ariz. Dept. of Corrections Execution Protocols 46, 48 (Dec. 15, 2014), online at https://corrections.az.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ PDFs/arizona_final_report_12_15_14_w_cover.pdf. And far from blaming midazolam for the Wood execution, the report recommended that Arizona replace its two-drug protocol with Oklahoma’s three-drug protocol that includes a 500-milligram dose of midazolam as the first drug. Id., at 49.