Below are summaries from two U.S. District Court decisions regarding problems with lethal injection procedures in Arkansas and Missouri. The court in Arkansas granted a stay of execution for Don Davis to allow further investigations into the lethal injection procedures. In Missouri, in Michael Taylor’s case, the District judge put all executions in the state on hold until changes are made in the state’s execution protocols.

Nooner v. Norris, No. 5:06CV00110 SWW
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas
Ordered: June 26, 2006

Terrick Nooner and Don Davis, two Arkansas death-row inmates, brought a civil action seeking a declaration that the protocol for carrying out executions by lethal injection in Arkansas violated the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and an injunction to enjoin the state from carrying out future executions in accordance with the protocol. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas granted the motion for a preliminary injunction and stayed the execution of Davis.

Arkansas’ lethal injection statute gives the Director of the Arkansas Department of Correction the responsibility to determine which substances should be administered and what kinds of procedures should be used in any execution. Davis claimed that the State’s protocol creates a substantial risk that the first drug might still allow him to experience intense pain and agony when the other two chemicals are administered.

The District Court considered Davis’ medical expert testimony and eyewitness accounts of Arkansas executions, which suggested that inmates remained conscious during their executions. Applying a strong equitable presumption against the grant of a stay, the court found that Davis had shown that he was “personally under a threat of irreparable harm.” The court also found that an evidentiary hearing on Davis’ claims would serve the “public interest in the humane and constitutional application of the State’s lethal injection statute.”


Taylor v. Crawford, No. 05-4173-CV-C-FJG
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri

Ordered: June 26, 2006

Michael Taylor had sought a declaratory judgment that Missouri’s method of execution violates the Eighth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. He appealed the District Court’s January 31, 2006 Order denying him relief, arguing that he did not have sufficient time to present his arguments to the court. The Eighth Circuit remanded the case to the District Court to reconvene the hearing. The court amended its previous order of January 31, 2006 and ordered the Missouri Department of Corrections to prepare a written protocol for the implementation of lethal injections. The court stayed all executions in Missouri pending approval of the protocol.

The court noted that the cruelty against which the Constitution protects a convicted man is cruelty “inherent in the method of punishment, not the necessary suffering involved in any method employed to extinguish life humanely” (quoting Louisana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber (1947)).

The court found many problems with the way executions are carried out in Missouri after reviewing the chemical dispensary logs, the videotape of the execution chamber, and the interrogatories submitted to state officials. For example, the protocol is not carried out consistently and is subject to change because there was no written protocol describing the kinds of drugs, the amounts, and the methods of administering the drugs for the executions. The court concluded that Missouri’s lethal injection procedure subjects condemned inmates to an unnecessary risk that they will be subject to unconstitutional pain and suffering when the lethal injection drugs are administered.

Read the District Court’s Order.
See DPIC’s Lethal Injection page, including executions stayed and carried out in recent months. See also Methods of Execution.