23 October 2015 :

Justice Antonin Scalia said today that he would not be surprised if the Supreme Court strikes down the death penalty. The comment from the conservative justice comes as death penalty states struggle to follow through on executions.
Justice Scalia was asked about the death penalty during an appearance at the University of Minnesota Law School.
Professor Richard Frase was in the audience, and he says Scalia seemed to be lamenting the growing skepticism about the death penalty among other members of the court.
Frase said: “I did come away thinking that he saw it as pretty likely that there would be five votes to strike down the death penalty across the board at some point while he's still in court”.
Scalia has said similar things before, so there's no reason to think that the Supreme Court is about to move on the death penalty. But his remarks are timely, especially when he talked about how it's become, quote, "practically impossible for states to impose the death penalty."