Court of Appeals: Lethal Injection Procedure Violates Administrative Procedures Act

20 December 2006

Court of Appeals: Lethal Injection Procedure Violates Administrative Procedures Act

From Maryland Courts Watcher:

The part of the DOC protocol that directs the manner of administering the lethal injection is ineffective until either (1) it is adopted as a regulation in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, or (2) the Legislature exempts it from the requirements of that Act.

The Baltimore Sun has an article on this death penalty case as well.

For those not familiar with general concepts of administrative law, Maryland's Administrative Procedures Act is a broad statute requiring that state agencies writing regulations for their own conduct submit those regulations for review and comment in an organized way. That statute also provide guidelines for challenging violations of those approved regulations in an administrative proceeding usually before an "Administrative Law Judge" or ALJ, which proceeding is then subject to judicial review in court. A relatively trivial example of this statute in action is drivers' license suspensions. Both state statutes and MVA regulations define the accumulation of "points"; the MVA cannot simply suspend your license, but must provide you a hearing upon request, etc., and the MVA cannot change the rules for suspensions without publication, comment, review, etc.