“The state of Arkansas plans to execute seven death-row inmates between Monday and the end of the month. Since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment, no state has executed so many people in such a short period of time. In late March, the inmates asked the Supreme Court to hear their cases on the ground that Arkansas’s hurried schedule was ‘an affront’ to their ‘basic human dignity.’ The Justices are expected to consider the petition on Thursday, four days before the first two executions are slated to take place—but the prospects for the Court taking action are not good.”