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Ninth Circuit rejects challenge to Arizona's lethal injection protocol

By Douglas A. Berman

The Ninth Circuit today provides some proof that death row defendants do not always win in that court.  In Dickens v. Brewer, No. No. 09-16539 (9th Cir. Feb. 9, 2011) (available here), a unanimous panel rejects an attack on Arizona's lethal injection protocol through an opinion that begins this way: Like most states that impose the death penalty, Arizona uses a three-drug lethal injection protocol.  Under the protocol, executions are carried out through the sequential administration of three chemicals ? sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.  The problems that can arise from the use of such a protocol are well known: if the sodium thiopental is not administered correctly, the inmate will be improperly anesthetized during the execution and will experience tremendous pain and suffering from the administration of the pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 09, 2011 (boomark / email).