Oklahoma’s federal judge ruled Monday that the state’s three drug lethal injection method was constitutional. This allows the state to request execution dates from more than two dozen death row prisoners who were plaintiffs in this case.
The ruling by Judge Stephen Friot came after a six-day federal trial in which 28 death row prisoners’ attorneys argued that the first drug, midazolam (sedative), is not sufficient to make an inmate feel pain. It also creates a risk for severe pain and suffering, which violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting cruel or unusual punishments.
Friot wrote that the Supreme Court has made clear the prerequisites for a successful challenge to lethal injection under the Eighth Amendment. He cited three previous rulings on death penalty.
He said, “The plaintiff inmates are well below the standard set by the Supreme Court.”
Jennifer Moreno is one of the lawyers representing the death row inmates. She said that they are still considering their options for appealing to the U.S. 10th. Circuit Court of Appeals, Denver.
“The decision of the district court ignores the overwhelming evidence that Oklahoma’s execution protocol as written and implemented creates an unacceptable risk for prisoners to experience severe pain, suffering,” Moreno stated in a statement.
John O’Connor, Oklahoma Attorney General, stated in a statement that the state had effectively proven that both lethal injection drugs as well as state execution protocols were constitutional.
“The Court’s decision is definitive: Plaintiffs in this case have ‘fallen well short’ of making a case. Midazolam, as O’Connor repeatedly stated, ‘can’t be relied on… to render an inmate insensately to pain’. My team is currently reviewing the U.S. District Court order and will decide when to request execution dates from Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
Each side provided experts in anesthesiology or pharmacology to offer differing opinions about the effectiveness of midazolam for rendering inmates unable feel pain.
Friot was told by James Stronski (an attorney representing the inmates) that inmates who aren’t properly anesthetized would feel paralyzed, unable to speak or move after the second drug has been administered. They will also feel extreme pain when potassium chloride, which is injected to stop the heart, is administered.
Stronski stated to the judge, “If this continues… this 21st century burning at stake.”
The state’s attorneys rejected this argument and maintained that the 500 mg dose of the sedative was sufficient to prevent inmates from feeling pain.
Since October, the state has performed four lethal injections. Oklahoma’s former Solicitor General Mithun Mannsinghani stated during closing arguments that these “are definitive proofs that the protocol works as it is intended.”
Oklahoma resumed lethal injections with John Grant’s execution in October. Grant convulsed on a gurney, vomited, and was declared dead. Three more executions have been carried out since then without any noticeable complications.
Oklahoma was home to one of the most notorious death chambers in the country until problems in 2014/2015 led to a moratorium. Richard Glossip, who was about to be executed in September 2015, was saved by prison officials when they realized that they had received the wrong lethal medication. Later, it was discovered that the same drug used to execute another inmate in January 2015 had been mistakenly administered.
Following a botched execution that occurred in April 2014, Clayton Lockett, an inmate, struggled on a wheelchair before he died 43 minutes after receiving his lethal injection. The state’s prison chief then ordered that executioners stop.
