Oklahoma lethal injection method ruled constitutional by federal judge

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Written by Casey Dawson, Countable News

Oklahoma’s lethal injection execution protocol was declared constitutional by a federal judge on Monday amid a legal challenge brought forward by attorneys representing over two dozen death row inmates.
Judge Stephen Friot ruled that attorneys failed to prove the state’s lethal injection method violated the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Oklahoma’s three-drug cocktail begins with midazolam, a sedative meant to anesthetize the prisoner. The second drug administered, vecuronium bromide, then paralyzes the inmate. Lastly, potassium chloride is used to stop the heart.
In 1977, the three-drug method was adopted for the first time in Oklahoma, with sodium thiopental used as the initial drug to put prisoners into a coma-like state. According to NPR, pressure from groups opposed to the death penalty led to European and U.S. manufacturers refusing to provide states with sodium thiopental or a similar drug called pentobarbital, causing states to turn to midazolam as a more accessible replacement.
But death penalty critics and experts have argued that midazolam does not produce the same coma-like state that previously used drugs like sodium thiopental or pentobarbital could, creating a substantial risk for severe pain during the process.

Both sides called forward experts in anesthesiology and pharmacology to testify, setting up what was described by Friot as a “battle of the experts” who frequently and strongly contradicted one another.
Attorneys on behalf of inmates argued that the use of midazolam creates an “unacceptable risk”, as it can allow prisoners to feel excruciating pain throughout the rest of the injection process if incorrectly administered.
Attorneys for the state argued the opposite, that the drug properly renders inmates unconscious and unable to feel pain.
In the suit, the prisoners identified three alternative methods of execution including two different drug combinations, or a firing squad, which has never been used in Oklahoma but is authorized under the state’s law.

In 2015, Oklahoma issued a de facto moratorium due to a combination of mistakes including a botched execution the year prior.
The almost seven-year pause ended in October 2021 when John Grant received the death penalty via the three-drug lethal injection method. He convulsed and vomited after receiving midazolam, causing some experts and doctors to raise concerns. Since then, three more executions have been performed with no noticeable complications.
Oklahoma is one of seven states that have used midazolam in the three-drug method of lethal injection.

Attorneys for the death row inmates have said they are assessing their options to appeal the case to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, CO.
Oklahoma Attorney General O’Connor said the state plans to request execution dates this week.

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