Twenty death penalty opponents were on the U.S. Supreme Court plaza Monday awaiting the justices' ruling on the lawfulness of Oklahoma's lethal-injection procedure. The demonstrators sat silently in chairs, holding banners that said “Stop State Killing” and “End executions now!”

After one of the most contentious oral arguments this term, the high court ruled, 5-4, that the drug midazolam does not violate the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

“We don't get concerned about specific drugs. We are opposed to all executions in all cases,” said Mary Catherine Johnson, a member of the Open Door Community in Atlanta, a sponsor of the Abolitionist Action Committee protest at the Supreme Court. “There's a myriad of things wrong with it, whether it be that we can potentially execute innocent people or the cost of the death penalty.”