Gov. Mike Rounds of South Dakota stayed the execution of Elijah Page on the day it was to be carried out because of concerns about the state’s lethal injection process. The governor said there was a conflict between state law requiring the use of two drugs, and the anticipated practice of using three drugs in the lethal injection. Such a practice could put state employees at risk of violating the law. Page had waived his appeals, but other inmates had raised challenges to the practice. (Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Aug. 29, 2006). This act appears to put all executions in the state on hold until at least July 1, 2007.
Page is the 13th inmate this year to be given a stay of execution lasting beyond the scheduled date. In the same time, 39 inmates have been executed, almost all by lethal injection. Executions are effectively on hold in California, Delaware, Missouri, New Jersey, and South Dakota because of challenges to the lethal injection process. See DPIC’s Lethal Injection page and Arbitrariness.
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