It was the last gasp of soft-on-crime lefties and the U.S. Supreme Court dealt it a stunning blow finding that Kentucky's execution method -- lethal injection -- was legal if properly administered.

WASHINGTON -- A national drive to halt the death penalty met defeat at the Supreme Court on Wednesday when the justices ruled that lethal injections, if properly administered, were a humane means of executing a condemned prisoner.

By a surprisingly large 7-2 margin, the court rejected a constitutional attack on the main method of carrying out the death penalty across America. Its ruling cleared the way for executions to resume after a seven-month delay.

Since October, officials and judges in several states -- including California -- have put executions on hold while awaiting the outcome of the Kentucky case decided Wednesday. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the ruling "supports California's lethal-injection protocol" and should allow executions in the state to resume.

The court's opinion, by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., confirmed that there was strong support for the death penalty among the justices, and an unwillingness to tolerate endless delays.

"We begin with the principle . . . that capital punishment is constitutional. It necessarily follows that there must be a means of carrying it out," Roberts wrote. "Some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution -- no matter how humane -- if only from the prospect of error in following the required procedure."

This is a huge victory for common sense and justice: The vindication of the principle that there are certain crimes that deserve nothing less than death as a punishment.