Several southern US states are preparing to resume executions after the Supreme Court ruled this week that lethal injection is constitutional, although some still face legal battles.
In the hours following Wednesday's much-anticipated ruling, several state governors announced they would resume execution schedules that had been suspended since the start of the court's deliberations in September.
The decision directly relates only to the state of Kentucky, where the two plaintiffs were from, but many other states that use similar procedures are treating it as a green light.
The court's ruling "affirms the method the state of Texas has in place to carry out the death penalty," said Rick Perry, governor of the southern state where more than a third of US executions in the last 30 years have occurred. According to local media reports, the Houston prosecutor has already requested an execution date for six death row inmates in his county.
Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has also requested an execution date for two prisoners within the next two months, saying: "It is time Oklahoma moves forward in completing" the cases.
The lethal injection process generally involves the administration of a cocktail of three drugs - the first puts the prisoner to sleep, the second blocks respiration by paralysing the muscles, and the third stops the heart.
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