The justices, of course, had many questions and factors to consider.
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The seven-judge panel posed several queries like: What exactly is cruel punishment — the carrying out of the penalty of death or a system that imposes death arbitrarily?
Is it even appropriate for the court to exercise jurisdiction in cases where there is no record at issue? Or should the court appoint a special master to review death penalty data within its own records?
Attorney Tim Kane from the Federal Community Defender Office represents petitioners Jermont Coz and Kevin Marinella, two inmates on death row.
He argued the capital sentence in Pennsylvania is so flawed that it's unconstitutional, leaving arbitrary factors — like race, poverty, geography, and a broken court-appointed counsel system — to control whether death is imposed.
But the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General argued that remedies, like appeals, already exist to deal with disparities in the death penalty, and the parameters of the capital punishment should be left up to lawmakers.
The death penalty has not been executed in Pennsylvania in the last two decades.
There's no word yet on when or how the court will rule.