Legal chal­lenges to new lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures have delayed exe­cu­tions in Florida and Missouri this week. Similar chal­lenges halt­ed exe­cu­tions in Georgia in July. On November 18, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a hear­ing on the state’s new exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and stayed the exe­cu­tion of Askari Muhammad, who had been sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on December 3. The hear­ing will exam­ine ​“the effi­ca­cy of mida­zo­lam hydrochlo­ride as an anes­thet­ic in the amount pre­scribed by Florida’s pro­to­col.” Florida is the first state to use mida­zo­lam in exe­cu­tions, hav­ing car­ried out two exe­cu­tions using this drug in com­bi­na­tion with 2 oth­er drugs. In Missouri, a fed­er­al judge stayed the exe­cu­tion of Joseph Franklin on November 19, call­ing the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, ​“a frus­trat­ing­ly mov­ing tar­get.” She said that the Department of Corrections ​“has not pro­vid­ed any infor­ma­tion about the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, inspec­tion his­to­ry, infrac­tion his­to­ry, or oth­er aspects of the com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy or of the per­son com­pound­ing the drug.” The stay was lift­ed hours lat­er by a high­er court, and Franklin was exe­cut­ed on November 20, though oth­er chal­lenges to the exe­cu­tion process con­tin­ue. Earlier this year, a Georgia Superior Court judge stayed the exe­cu­tion of Warren Hill, ques­tion­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the law that clas­si­fied infor­ma­tion on exe­cu­tion drugs as ​“con­fi­den­tial state secrets.” 

(“Court lifts stay of exe­cu­tion of ser­i­al killer in Mo.,” Associated Press, November 20, 2013; B. Cotterell, ​“Florida death row inmate wins stay, hear­ing on new exe­cu­tion drug,” Reuters, November 18, 2013). See Lethal injec­tion.

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