(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
If I'm not mistaken, hanging is the other approved method the 9th circus has blessed for use after tossing the gas chamber and electric chair to the curb.
However, the convict gets to pick his poison. not sure what could happen now, or anytime soon if this holds up..
The Judge has committed a most foul deed and should be made to pay for it.
Not quite. The same court had rejected similar and earlier claims on the same merits relying on expert testimony. This time, the court looked to evidence from the executions conducted over the last year and noted that for whatever reason, the eyewitness testimony was that respiration did not cease within the time period the court required earlier. So the court gave the State two options while denying the injunction brought by the plaintiff: administer only sodium thiopental or another barbiturate or combination of barbiturates until the plaintiff overdosed or, in the alternative, use medical experts to confirm that the plaintiff is unconscious before the administration of either pancuronium bromide or potassium chloride. The State opted to go with the second option, and that is where the trouble began. The judge was very clear that this had nothing to do with banning the practice as cruel and unusual; it was an equitable remedy that would have permitted the execution to go along as planned. The real problem seems to be that in another order (issued yesterday) the judge also required that the injection be administered not only by someone licensed to do so, but also with a syringe as opposed to an IV. The State apparently objected to this, as they did not want the executioner to have contact with the prisoner. If there is anything to object to, it is the latter requirement. I have not read the order, so I am unaware of what the rationale was for that decision; it was not mentioned in the February 14th order. I am a little curious as to why the State objected to the syringe in the administration of the sedative.