A federal judge in Louisiana has delayed five executions until at least July 2016 as state officials struggle to determine how to conduct executions using lethal injection. Christopher Sepulvado, a death row inmate whose execution has been rescheduled several times over the last two years, is challenging the constitutionality of Louisiana’s execution method. The Department of Corrections requested that a hearing related to Sepulvado’s challenge be put on hold because, “it would be a waste of resources and time to litigate this matter at present,” because of ongoing developments relating to the availability of lethal injection drugs. Louisiana does not currently have an execution protocol. Its last protocol, however, was the same as that used in Arizona’s botched execution of Joseph Wood: a combination of hydromorphone and midazolam. The state allegedly lied to a hospital in order to obtain one of the drugs in 2014, telling a pharmacist that the drug was needed for “a medical patient,” not an execution. The Department of Corrections’ last known supply of the execution drugs has now expired.

(D. Hasselle, “Executions on hold for at least a year as Louisiana sorts out death penalty method,” The Lens, June 23, 2015.) See Lethal Injection and Louisiana.

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