More on Kentucky LI Ruling

http://standdown.typepad.com/weblog/lethal_injection/index.html

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

More on Kentucky LI Ruling

Since today's earlier post is down the page and off the screen, I'll add this update on today's ruling with this AP article, via the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Kentucky must hold public hearings on its execution protocol after changing how a lethal injection is administered, a state judge ruled Wednesday.

Franklin County Circuit Judge Sam McNamara's ruling could prevent the state from executing any inmates until the issue is resolved. The ruling came a week after the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the state's lethal injection law, saying it did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

Kentucky Death Row inmates Thomas Clyde Bowling, 52, and Ralph Baze, 49, challenged the lethal injection method in Franklin County Circuit Court in April, saying the Kentucky Department of Corrections did not follow state-mandated administrative procedures before instituting it.

The two inmates also challenged the method of executing condemned prisoners in 2004, saying the drug formula used amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

After that suit was filed, the state changed the mixture of drugs used in giving a lethal injection as well as procedures for how it is administered.
Rebecca DiLoreto, post-trial division director for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, said McNamara's ruling simply requires the state to follow its own rules before making administrative changes.

More on the lethal injection issue is here.