Arizona Makes Key Concessions, Reaches Deal With Prisoners to Settle Lethal-Injection Lawsuit

Death-row pris­on­ers and the state of Arizona have reached a ten­ta­tive set­tle­ment to address the state’s lethal-injection protocol. 

Under the set­tle­ment, which could have an impact on lethal-injec­tion lit­i­ga­tion across the coun­try, Arizona has dropped a three-drug for­mu­la from its pro­to­col in favor of using a high dose of sin­gle bar­bi­tu­rate, and will hon­or a pri­or com­mit­ment not to use the seda­tive mida­zo­lam. The state also agreed not to use any par­a­lyt­ic drug in the exe­cu­tion process — which defense lawyers argued had served only to mask the pris­on­ers’ reac­tion to the painful third drug used to stop his heart. 

The pro­posed agree­ment pro­vides greater trans­paren­cy and account­abil­i­ty through­out the exe­cu­tion process, per­mit­ting wit­ness­es to see cor­rec­tions per­son­nel escort the pris­on­er into the exe­cu­tion cham­ber, strap him to the gur­ney, and insert the intra­venous line. The wit­ness­es also will be able to view via closed-cir­cuit mon­i­tors the drugs being insert­ed into the IV lines. 

In the past, Arizona had been sharply crit­i­cized for repeat­ed­ly chang­ing exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures, and the state has agreed that the direc­tor of the Department of Corrections would no longer be able to make last-minute changes to the exe­cu­tion process. Arizona also agreed to test the drugs before they are used in an exe­cu­tion, and com­mit­ted to not use expired drugs. Previously, the state had agreed it would not use the seda­tive mida­zo­lam — which was used in the botched exe­cu­tion of Joseph Wood in 2014 — but had hedged on that com­mit­ment in a revised pro­to­col pub­lished in 2015. 

At a hear­ing before U.S. District Judge Neil Wake, Assistant Attorney General Jeff Sparks said the agree­ment would­n’t imme­di­ate­ly restart exe­cu­tions. ​“The state does­n’t have drugs right now and has no inten­tion of seek­ing a war­rant,” Sparks said. 

Dale Baich, a lawyer for the death-row pris­on­ers, praised the set­tle­ment. ​“Arizona has had this his­to­ry of prob­lem­at­ic exe­cu­tions, but today the state is tak­ing steps to decrease the risk that pris­on­ers will be tor­tured to death,” he said. 

Prisoners in Ohio are rais­ing sim­i­lar chal­lenges as the state has repeat­ed­ly changed its pro­posed pro­to­col, promis­ing in 2009 that it would nev­er again use a three-drug for­mu­la, then propos­ing exact­ly such a pro­to­col in 2016. Arizona’s lethal-injec­tion pro­ce­dure is still the sub­ject of anoth­er law­suit brought by a group of media orga­ni­za­tions that are seek­ing trans­paren­cy on the source of exe­cu­tion drugs and the qual­i­fi­ca­tions of executioners.