Lethal injection review may halt US executions

Lethal injection review may halt US executions


Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday September 29, 2007
The Guardian

America, which has some 3,350 prisoners on death row, yesterday seemed to be moving towards an unofficial moratorium on executions after the supreme court granted a rare last-minute reprieve to a condemned man in Texas.

The supreme court stay for Carlton Turner Jr, who was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection for killing his adoptive parents, arrived hours after a death row inmate in Alabama was granted a 45-day reprieve by the state's governor.

Opponents of the death penalty said the moves suggested there would be a lull in executions while the supreme court reviews lethal injection, the method for dispatching prisoners in all but one of the 38 states which impose the death penalty.

"I think this is a sign that maybe all executions are going to be put on hold aside from those who might volunteer, or who don't raise the issue of the lethal injection method," said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Centre.

In its order on Thursday the supreme court offered no explanation for Turner's reprieve. However, his lawyers had based their appeal entirely on likening lethal injection to a "chemical straitjacket".

The court is expected to hear arguments next January on whether lethal injection, a cocktail of three drugs, represents cruel and unusual punishment and is therefore unlawful. The challenge is on behalf of two condemned men in Kentucky, Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr, who argued in their 2004 suit that they would suffer excruciating pain in the moments before death, but would be unable to cry out because of the immobilising effects of one of the drugs in the injection.

The supreme court's consideration of lethal injection also follows a number of botched executions.

Its decision, expected to arrive by June 2008, would have broad implications. Most of the 37 states using lethal injection use the same drugs as in Kentucky.

In recent months 11 states have suspended executions because of concerns about the cruelty of lethal injection.

However, a spokesman for Amnesty International said it was too early to say whether America was moving towards a "creeping moratorium" on executions. Texas, which operates the busiest execution chamber, appears resistant to a slowdown. The state executed a prisoner hours after the supreme court announced its review - before lawyers for the condemned man could prepare an appeal.