COLUMBUS — The stop-and-start nature of U.S. executions in recent years hit another speed bump last week when a federal judge found Ohio’s latest lethal injection procedure unconstitutional. The ruling by Magistrate Judge Michael Merz went far beyond nitpicking the state’s procedures, and on one point raised potential problems for at least three other states [...]
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s prisons agency is trying to obtain a drug that could reverse the lethal injection process if needed by stopping the effects of another drug previously used in problematic executions. The request to use the drug would come if executioners weren’t confident the first of three lethal drugs would render a [...]
In a federal court of appeals last week, a group of inmates on death row lost their appeal challenging the constitutionality of a newly enacted statutory scheme concerning the confidentiality of information related to lethal injection. A divided 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Ronald Phillips, Raymond Tibbetts and Robert Van Hook lacked standing [...]
COLUMBUS — Ohio’s new lethal injection system is akin to burning inmates at the stake or burying them alive, say federal defense lawyers rushing to stop the state’s first execution in three years. Ohio’s three-drug method, announced Oct. 3, is worse than a similar procedure used years ago, and multiple problems remain with the way [...]