Texas, Alabama Executions Stayed As Lethal Injection Controversy Spreads

Two exe­cu­tions sched­uled to take place on Thursday, September 27, in Alabama and Texas were stayed just two days after the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will con­sid­er the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Kentucky’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. In Alabama, Governor Bob Riley grant­ed Thomas Arthur a 45-day stay of exe­cu­tion to allow time for the state to change its cur­rent lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. The change is designed to address con­cerns that inmates are not ful­ly uncon­scious when giv­en drugs to stop the heart and lungs, a prob­lem that could result in excru­ci­at­ing pain. In Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court halt­ed the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Carlton Turner as he was fac­ing an immi­nent lethal injec­tion. Though the Supreme Court did not give a rea­son for issu­ing a stay in Turner’s case, his attor­neys have linked their appeal to the Kentucky lethal injec­tion case the Justices will hear next year. In their appeal to the Supreme Court, Turner’s lawyers said that if the first of the three drugs failed to ren­der Turner uncon­scious ​“the inmate will expe­ri­ence excru­ci­at­ing pain and tor­ture as the sec­ond and third drugs are admin­is­tered.”

Earlier in the week, just hours after the Supreme Court announced it would hear the Kentucky lethal injec­tion chal­lenge, Michael Richard was exe­cut­ed in Texas. Lawyers attrib­uted Richard’s exe­cu­tion to the short peri­od of time they had to pre­pare appeals. After the Supreme Court’s deci­sion to stay Turner’s exe­cu­tion, Morris Moon, a Houston attor­ney with the non-prof­it Texas Defender Service, observed, ​“We’re relieved. We’re pleased it won’t be busi­ness as usu­al in Texas.”

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and all but one of the 38 states with the death penal­ty use lethal injec­tion for exe­cu­tions. Executions in many states had already been halt­ed as courts and oth­er offi­cials con­sid­er their lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols.
(Los Angeles Times, September 28, 2007; Associated Press, September 28, 2007; Reuters, September 28, 2007). See also Lethal Injection, Upcoming Executions, and U.S. Supreme Court.