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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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"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.
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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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