Louisiana To Change Lethal Injection Procedure One Week Before Execution

Just one week before the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Christopher Sepulvado, Louisiana announced it has been unable to find pen­to­bar­bi­tal for its lethal injec­tions and instead may apply a new pro­ce­dure used only once before in the U.S. If the state can­not obtain pen­to­bar­bi­tal, it will employ the two-drug pro­ce­dure used by Ohio on January16 to exe­cute Dennis McGuire, an exe­cu­tion that result­ed in gasp­ing sounds and move­ments by the inmate over an extend­ed peri­od of time. That pro­ce­dure involved mida­zo­lam – a seda­tive – and hydro­mor­phone – a painkiller. Gary Clements, an attor­ney for Mr. Sepulvado, said Louisiana is vio­lat­ing its own pro­to­col, which requires that lethal injec­tion drugs be obtained at least 30 days before an exe­cu­tion. ​“Just days before a sched­uled exe­cu­tion, the State has sig­nif­i­cant­ly changed its exe­cu­tion pro­to­col with­out inde­pen­dent over­sight or pub­lic scruti­ny,” Clements said. “[This] once again demon­strates that the State is not pre­pared to move for­ward with Mr. Sepulvado’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion in a man­ner that com­ports with state and fed­er­al laws, and the U.S. Constitution.” Sepulvado’s attor­neys argue his due process rights are being vio­lat­ed by the lack of infor­ma­tion about the man­ner of his exe­cu­tion, and his right to be spared cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment would be vio­lat­ed by an exe­cu­tion using faulty drugs.

Sepulvado’s exe­cu­tion is sched­uled for February 5. Louisiana had planned to car­ry out the exe­cu­tion using pen­to­bar­bi­tal from a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy. If the new drugs are used, they may be inject­ed intra­mus­cu­lar­ly, as opposed to intra­venous­ly as was done in Ohio.

On January 30, Sepulvado’s attor­neys filed a sup­ple­men­tal brief with the U.S. Supreme Court chal­leng­ing this new pro­to­col and ask­ing for a stay of execution.

(L. McGaughy, ​“Louisiana will change pro­to­col, adopt Ohio lethal injec­tion drugs one week before sched­uled exe­cu­tion,” Times-Picayune, January 27, 2014; update Jan. 31, 2014). See Lethal Injection.