US Supreme Court to consider challenge to execution drug
Source: Associated Press
US Supreme Court to consider challenge to execution drug
By TIM TALLEY, Associated Press | April 28, 2015 | Updated: April 28, 2015 6:00pm
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Exactly one year after a botched lethal injection, attorneys for other Oklahoma death row inmates were set to ask the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday to outlaw a sedative used in the procedure — a ruling that could force several states to either find new execution drugs or change the way they put prisoners to death.
The lawyer for one of the inmates said midazolam has been a "spectacular failure" as the first of a three-drug combination for lethal injections, even beyond the 43-minute execution of Clayton Lockett that sparked the lawsuit. Lockett writhed on the gurney, moaned and clenched his teeth for several minutes on April 29, 2014, before Oklahoma prison officials belatedly tried to halt the process.
"There have been cases throughout the United States that have been reported in which midazolam has not sedated the condemned," said Mark Henricksen, who is representing Richard Eugene Glossip in the case.
Three months before Lockett's execution, Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire snorted and gasped as he was strapped to the gurney and didn't die until 26 minutes into the procedure. It was the only time Ohio had used a two-drug combination that included midazolam, and prison officials have since abandoned it. Officials in Arizona have said they are also abandoning the drug and will try to obtain others for executions.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/US-Supreme-Court-to-consider-challenge-to-6229387.php
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