SCOTUS stays three executions using midazolam while allowing a fourth; did inmate fake pain?
The U.S. Supreme Court has stayed three Oklahoma executions using midazolam until a decision on the constitutionality of the lethal-injection drug.
The Supreme Court granted the stays on Wednesday after the state attorney general had requested it do so, report NewsOK, SCOTUSblog, the New York Times and Reuters. The court order in Glossip v. Gross appeared to allow the executions, however, if the state uses a drug other than midazolam.
The court granted cert on Friday, Jan. 23, in Glossip v. Gross, a challenge to use of the drug as the sedative portion of a lethal injection cocktail. States had turned to midazolam because of a shortage of pentobarbital. The cert petition argues use of midazolam violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment because “it is a benzodiazepine that has no pain-relieving properties.”
Another Oklahoma inmate, Charles Warner, was executed on Jan. 15 after the Supreme Court refused a stay in his case raising the same issue. The refusal highlighted court rules requiring four votes to grant cert but five votes to stay an execution, the Times says.
After executioners started an IV line that contained, at the time, only saline solution, Warner had said “it feels like acid,” the Associated Press reports. After midazolam was administered he complained, “My body is on fire.”
Some suggested Warner was exaggerating in an attempt to help other death-row inmates. Retired prison guard Randy Lopez was among the critics. Warner was “hamming it up,” Lopez said.
