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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