LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas –
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld Arkansas’ use of the sedative midazolam in its lethal injections.
A three-judge panel of the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a trial judge’s ruling upholding the state’s enforcement process. US District Judge Kristine Baker ruled in 2020 that the state’s use of midazolam in injections is constitutional and dismissed claims that less painful methods of execution exist.
“Without a scientific consensus and a dearth of credible scientific evidence on the effect of large doses of midazolam on humans, the district court clearly did not err in determining that the inmates failed to demonstrate that the Arkansas execution protocol is safe or highly likely.” causing severe pain,” the appeals panel said in its ruling.
The ruling comes more than five years since Arkansas rushed to execute eight inmates for 11 days before their batch of midazolam expired. The state eventually executed four men after the courts stopped the other four executions.
The state has not executed any inmates since 2017 and does not have any scheduled executions.
“It is past time for justice to be served in these cases of defendants killing innocent people, and the Eighth Circuit’s decision reaffirms that Arkansas’ execution protocol is constitutional,” Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican, said in a statement. a statement. “It’s time to move on.”
A lawyer for the death row inmates who challenged the proceedings had no immediate comment on the ruling.
The inmate case focused on midazolam, which critics say does not render inmates completely unconscious before they are administered other lethal injection drugs. The US Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in executions in 2015, but its use still raises legal challenges.
Seven states have used the sedative as the first administered in a three-drug execution process, and two have used it in a two-drug process, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Critics of midazolam have cited its use in several botched US executions, with Oklahoma suspending executions in 2015 due to problems. Oklahoma resumed lethal injections last year, and a federal judge in June upheld the state’s execution protocol.
Under the Arkansas execution process, inmates are first administered midazolam. They are then given vecuronium bromide, which stops the lungs, followed by potassium chloride, which stops the heart. Witnesses called by attorneys for Arkansas inmates during a 2019 trial before Baker included pharmacologists who said midazolam can begin to lose its effectiveness within four to eight minutes of administration. However, an anesthesiologist who testified on behalf of the state described midazolam as an effective sedative.
Lawyers for inmates said two of the executions carried out in Arkansas in 2017 highlighted problems with midazolam. One execution cited is that of convicted murderer Kenneth Williams, who witnesses said staggered and convulsed 20 times before he died. Another inmate, Marcel Williams, arched his back and took a deep breath during his execution, according to a witness.