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Judge declares Ohio lethal injection process 'unconstitutional' | Judge declares Ohio lethal injection process 'unconstitutional' |
(about 1 hour later) | |
A federal court has found Ohio's three-drug lethal injection process unconstitutional, putting three impending executions on hold. | A federal court has found Ohio's three-drug lethal injection process unconstitutional, putting three impending executions on hold. |
Magistrate Judge Michael Merz ruled against Ohio's use of a sedative that has caused problems in executions in other states such as Arizona. | Magistrate Judge Michael Merz ruled against Ohio's use of a sedative that has caused problems in executions in other states such as Arizona. |
The state was also banned from using drugs that paralyse inmates and stops their hearts. | The state was also banned from using drugs that paralyse inmates and stops their hearts. |
Next month's execution of Ronald Phillips was subsequently delayed. | Next month's execution of Ronald Phillips was subsequently delayed. |
The judge sided with Phillips and two other death row inmates that the sedative midazolam could not pass a US Supreme Court constitutional bar of causing "substantial risk of serious harm". | |
His ruling also barred the state from using the second and third drugs in the method: rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride. | |
Judge Merz said using those drugs was "completely inconsistent with the position" the state took when it said it would no longer use them in executions. | |
The state contended the three-drug process was constitutional, citing a Supreme Court ruling last year. | |
Phillips would have been the first inmate to be executed in the Midwestern state since January 2014. | Phillips would have been the first inmate to be executed in the Midwestern state since January 2014. |
In that execution, inmate Dennis McGuire gasped and snorted during the 26 minutes it took for him to die, which was the longest execution since Ohio resumed executions in 1999. | |
Ohio then ended the use of the two-drug method used on McGuire and struggled to find new supplies after drug companies began banning the use of their drugs for executions. | |
In October, Ohio said it would use midazolam with rocuronium bromide, which causes paralysis, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart. |