A new lethal injection twist in Kentucky

A new lethal injection twist in Kentucky

http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2006/11/a_new_lethal_in.html

As detailed in this AP story, "Kentucky must hold public hearings on its execution protocol after changing how a lethal injection is administered, a state judge ruled yesterday."

Here are more details:

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 first challenged the method of executing condemned prisoners in 2004, saying the drug formula used amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The state later changed the mixture of drugs used in giving lethal injections, as well as procedures for how it is administered.

The lawsuit filed this year by Bowling and Baze claimed the state law instituting lethal injection allows the state to set the protocol, but does not provide an exemption from the public hearings required when a new law is implemented.

StandDown Texas has more at this lethal injection archive.