Burgess v. California

How later courts describe this case

• noting that every court to address this issue has upheld the constitutionality of execution by lethal injection
• treatment below the standard of care for a given condition is not enough alone to make out a claim of deliberate indifference
• private physicians whose employer held contract with state prison system to provide medical services for inmates could assert qualified immunity
• petitioner must show not possibility of prejudice, but actual prejudice which worked to his disadvantage and infected his trial with constitutional errors