Federal judge upholds use of sedative in Arkansas executions
Source: Associated Press
Andrew Demillo, Associated Press
Updated 9:30 pm CDT, Monday, June 1, 2020
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) A federal judge on Monday upheld Arkansas execution process, ruling that the state can continue to use a sedative in lethal injections that other states have backed away from and rejecting claims that its use amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker ruled the use of midazolam in lethal injections is constitutional and dismissed claims that less painful methods of execution are available. Attorneys for the inmates have said those alternatives include a firing squad and a barbiturate commonly used in physician assisted suicide.
The Court cannot conclude that plaintiffs have proven that the Arkansas Midazolam Protocol entails a substantial risk of severe pain as a result of the use of a 500-mg dose of midazolam as the first drug in the three-drug protocol," Baker wrote in the 106-page ruling.
The ruling comes more than three years after Arkansas raced to execute eight inmates over 11 days, before its batch of midazolam expired. The state ultimately put four men to death after courts halted the other four executions.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Federal-judge-upholds-use-of-sedative-in-Arkansas-15309646.php