"States began moving forward with plans for executions this week after the Supreme Court declined last Wednesday to review the appeals of death row inmates who had challenged lethal-injection methods in nearly a dozen states.

The court had issued orders staying several executions last year and earlier this year while it weighed whether Kentucky's lethal-injection procedure constituted cruel and unusual punishment. States had postponed at least 14 scheduled executions pending the high court's decision, creating a de facto moratorium on capital punishment, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.

In a 7 to 2 vote last week, the justices said the three-drug cocktail used by Kentucky, which is similar to the one employed by the federal government and 34 other states, does not carry so great a risk of pain that it violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

With three executions already scheduled for this summer, Virginia could be the first state to carry out the punishment after the resolution of the Kentucky case. The state has scheduled a May 27 execution date for Kevin Green, who killed a couple in Brunswick County; June 10 for Percy L. Walton, who killed three neighbors in Danville; and July 24 for Edward Nathaniel Bell, who shot a police officer in Winchester.

"I actually expect to see a spate of scheduled executions," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Dieter said that despite its approval of Kentucky's lethal-injection procedure, the Supreme Court left room for lawyers to contest other states' procedures. "That sets the stage for a state-by-state resolution of this conflict," he said.

Attorneys contesting lethal injections have focused on training and procedures as ways to challenge them.

In numerous cases before federal and state courts, attorneys have argued that people who deliver anesthesia do not know how to insert a needle properly into a vein. They have contended that lighting has been poor during some executions, limiting the ability to see mistakes. And they have argued that some technicians hired to conduct medical procedures are not qualified.

Opponents said court arguments over these subjects are likely to continue.

Ty Alper, associate director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley's law school, said the Supreme Court's ruling in the Kentucky case means nothing has changed: State officials will try to carry out executions and opponents will question their procedures.

"It's going to be like it was before," Alper said. "In some states, prison officials are going to be pushing for round-the-clock injections -- there are 40 or 50 in Texas. The open question will be whether those states can reach the standard that the court has set for lethal injection."

After the Supreme Court declined to step in yesterday, some state courts, governors and corrections boards vowed to press forward with their execution plans. Texas will attempt to reschedule the execution of Carlton Turner Jr., who killed his parents and hid their decomposing bodies.

Mississippi will try to schedule the execution of Earl Wesley Berry, who kidnapped a woman and beat her to death after she left choir practice. And Alabama will seek to schedule the lethal injection of Thomas Arthur, who fatally shot a man through the eye as he slept.

Clay Crenshaw, chief of the capital litigation division in the Alabama attorney general's office, said a motion will be filed with the state Supreme Court to set an execution date. Shortly after the Supreme Court decided the Kentucky case, the attorney general asked the state's highest court to schedule executions in three other cases.

Crenshaw said challenges to the executions are likely to fall on deaf ears. "I think all nine justices basically say that based on what they've seen, there is no question that if the anesthesia goes in the bloodstream, the execution will be painless," he said. "The problem with their argument is there is just nothing to it."

Mississippi was awaiting the high court's decision to move forward with Berry's execution, said Jan Schaeffer, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney general. Texas, the state with the largest number of inmates on death row and stayed executions, said the discretion of rescheduling lethal injections is left to state district courts.

Tennessee corrections officials said stays on three executions set for December and January might soon be lifted by the state attorney general and the executions rescheduled. Oklahoma requested execution dates for Terry Lyn Short, who was convicted of killing a man in a fire, and Kevin Young, who was convicted of killing a man during a bungled robbery. Arkansas is reviewing the court's ruling before deciding how to proceed with three stayed executions.

In Florida, where the error-plagued execution of Angel Diaz took twice the normal time and led to a change in protocols, officials said no lethal injections have been scheduled. Diaz, the last man to be executed in the state, made facial expressions and gasped on his deathbed when he should have been unconscious, according to witnesses.

There were no scheduled executions in Ohio, officials said last week. The state changed its procedures after an execution in 2006, when Joseph Clark awoke in the middle of his lethal injection and said, "It don't work." As officials fumbled with attempts to deliver more anesthesia, he said, "Can you just give me something by mouth to end this?"" (Darryl Fears, The Washington Post, April 23, 2008)