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Ohio implements new lethal injection protocol in execution

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Ohio corrections officials executed convicted murderer Daniel Wilson on Wednesday morning, marking the state's first use of a new lethal injection method termed "set-to-die." The procedure was announced in May, and requires officials to shake and call out to the prisoner after a sedative has been administered. A second dose of the sedative can then be administered, if necessary. Wilson was sentenced to death in 1992 after being found guilty of kidnapping a woman and burning her alive in the trunk of a car, and the Ohio Parole Board voted unanimously to deny clemency to Wilson in April. His execution is said to have proceeded without any problems. A de facto national moratorium on the death penalty ended last year when the US Supreme Court ruled in Baze v. Rees that the three-drug lethal injection sequence used in most states does not violate the Constitution. Last April, anesthesiologists presented conflicting testimony during court hearings held to determine whether Ohio's lethal injection protocol at the time complied with the US Constitution and with Ohio's requirement that executions be carried out "in a professional, humane, sensitive and dignified manner." In 2007, the American Bar Association's death penalty assessment team called for a temporary halt on Ohio executions on due process grounds. The previous year, Ohio's execution protocol had come under heavy criticism after staff had difficulty administering the drugs and an inmate awakened during the procedure, but the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected a lawsuit challenging Ohio's lethal injection practices.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on June 03, 2009 (boomark / email).