Delaware is the most recent state to have its exe­cu­tions halt­ed while courts exam­ine whether the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures are cru­el and unusu­al. Similar con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenges have effec­tive­ly put exe­cu­tions on hold in California, New Jersey, Florida, and Missouri. In a meet­ing with Delaware offi­cials, Chief District Judge Sue L. Robinson ordered the state to respond to a law­suit filed by Robert W. Jackson, whose sched­uled May 19 exe­cu­tion was stayed so that his lethal injec­tion chal­lenge could be con­sid­ered in fed­er­al court. ​“No one else is going to be leapfrogged in front of Jackson until this ques­tion, fun­da­men­tal to every cap­i­tal case in Delaware, plays out. Everyone agrees this needs to be lit­i­gat­ed,” stat­ed Jackson’s attor­ney, Thomas Foley. Foley and oth­er attor­neys are con­sid­er­ing turn­ing Jackson’s case into a class action suit, a deci­sion that would for­mal­ly extend the freeze on exe­cu­tions to all death row inmates in Delaware.

Jackson’s legal claim rais­es sim­i­lar ques­tions to those posed in oth­er lethal injec­tion chal­lenges through­out the nation. The cas­es take issue with both the chem­i­cals used in the major­i­ty of lethal injec­tions and the train­ing of peo­ple who car­ry out the exe­cu­tions. The law­suits note that instead of a quick and humane death, those exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion are like­ly to face a slow and painful death by suf­fo­ca­tion. A recent Ohio exe­cu­tion took 90 min­utes for the inmate to die. In November 2005, the Delaware exe­cu­tion of Brian Steckel lin­gered for 12 min­utes while he spoke with fam­i­ly and friends. Steckel expressed sur­prise to prison offi­cials that the exe­cu­tion was tak­ing so long pri­or to his death, dur­ing which he vis­i­bly con­vulsed in his restraints and snort­ed.

(The News Journal, July 25, 2006). See DPIC’s Special Lethal Injection Information Page. See also, Botched Executions.

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