Supreme Court snubs challenge to death penalty constitutionality

By Andrew Chung
(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a direct challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment, rejecting an appeal by a Louisiana death row inmate convicted of killing three brothers.
Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer objected to the court’s decision not to hear the appeal by Marcus Reed, a drug dealer convicted in the 2010 shooting deaths of the three brothers, including a 13-year-old, over the theft of m