File photo shows an arm restraint on the gurney in the the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Okla. Problematic executions in Oklahoma, Arizona. (AP)
Oklahoma City:
A group of Oklahoma death row inmates scheduled to die early next year filed notice on Tuesday stating they intend to appeal the ruling of a federal judge who says the state's new lethal injection protocol is constitutional.
The four condemned men who have pending execution dates, beginning with Charles Frederick Warner on Jan. 15, maintain the state's use of the sedative midazolam in a three-drug combination poses a substantial risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering.
But US District Judge Stephen Friot ruled on Monday the 500-milligram dose Oklahoma intends to use makes it a "virtual certainty" that the inmate will be sufficiently unconscious before the second and third drugs are administered to halt the inmate's breathing and stop the heart.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Dale Baich says attorneys are reviewing the judge's order to decide which issues they intend to appeal. Baich declined to discuss legal strategy, but it's likely they will ask the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to delay the upcoming executions.
States have been scrambling to find new combinations of lethal drugs after European pharmaceutical companies restricted their distribution. Several prolonged executions this year have sparked debate over lethal injections in particular and executions in general.
A spokesman for Attorney General Scott Pruitt, whose attorneys represented the Department of Corrections, said Tuesday they were pleased with Friot's ruling.
"The decision upholds and preserves options for the governor and Department of Corrections to carry out the will of Oklahomans in enforcing the penalty of death for the most heinous of crimes," spokesman Aaron Cooper said.
Oklahoma was the first state to use a 100-milligram dose of midazolam as the first drug of a combination when it executed Clayton Lockett on April 29. Lockett writhed on the gurney, mumbled and lifted his head during his 43-minute execution, which the state tried to halt before it was over.
The inmates also argued that by tinkering with Oklahoma's lethal injection formula, the state is essentially conducting experiments on unwilling human subjects, but Friot in his ruling rejected that claim.
The four condemned men who have pending execution dates, beginning with Charles Frederick Warner on Jan. 15, maintain the state's use of the sedative midazolam in a three-drug combination poses a substantial risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering.
But US District Judge Stephen Friot ruled on Monday the 500-milligram dose Oklahoma intends to use makes it a "virtual certainty" that the inmate will be sufficiently unconscious before the second and third drugs are administered to halt the inmate's breathing and stop the heart.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Dale Baich says attorneys are reviewing the judge's order to decide which issues they intend to appeal. Baich declined to discuss legal strategy, but it's likely they will ask the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to delay the upcoming executions.
States have been scrambling to find new combinations of lethal drugs after European pharmaceutical companies restricted their distribution. Several prolonged executions this year have sparked debate over lethal injections in particular and executions in general.
A spokesman for Attorney General Scott Pruitt, whose attorneys represented the Department of Corrections, said Tuesday they were pleased with Friot's ruling.
"The decision upholds and preserves options for the governor and Department of Corrections to carry out the will of Oklahomans in enforcing the penalty of death for the most heinous of crimes," spokesman Aaron Cooper said.
Oklahoma was the first state to use a 100-milligram dose of midazolam as the first drug of a combination when it executed Clayton Lockett on April 29. Lockett writhed on the gurney, mumbled and lifted his head during his 43-minute execution, which the state tried to halt before it was over.
The inmates also argued that by tinkering with Oklahoma's lethal injection formula, the state is essentially conducting experiments on unwilling human subjects, but Friot in his ruling rejected that claim.
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