Lethal Injection Developments in Georgia

WMAZ-TV in Georgia has, "Georgia Execution Filled With Uncertainty."

Convicted killer Jack Alderman has less than one week to go before his
scheduled execution. But his fate is all but certain.

Georgia's top court is weighing whether he ought to be executed by lethal
injection even as the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether the method violates
the Constitution. And, in an unusual move, Alderman's lawyers are declining to
seek clemency before the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.

They're arguing instead for a 90-day stay that the board claims it doesn't
have the authority to grant.

Monday, Alderman passed up a chance to meet with state parole board officials
to make his case for clemency.

His lawyers said they are focused on an appeal paralleling the lethal
injection challenge before the nation's top court. Since they could not attend
the interview at Alderman's prison, they instructed him not to participate.

The Times of London looks at lawyers on the Alderman case, "UK lawyers attempt to stop American execution."

Lawyers from Clifford Chance, the world's biggest law firm, along with a group of top barristers led by Richard Lissack, QC, are calling for the execution of Jack Alderman this week to be stopped — at least until the Supreme Court has ruled.

Mr Alderman, who has been on death row for 32 years, is due to be executed next Friday by lethal injection, although the US Supreme Court recently suspended the execution of another death row prisoner, pending an appeal that "lethal injection" breaches the US Constitution as "cruel or inhuman" punishment.

It is the first time that the Supreme Court has examined the issue since 2004 and the only time it has ruled directly on a method of execution since 1878 when it upheld the use of the firing squad.

And:

The UK legal team from Clifford Chance and Outer Temple Chambers say that the length of detention is "cruel and unusual punishment" which has been condemned variously by the European Court of Human Rights and the Privy Council.

Second, the lapse of time involved has rendered any ultimate execution illegitimate and possibly an illegal act by the State, they say.

Third, the method of execution, "with its well-documented and scientifically-evidenced horrors which the prisoner endures en route to his death" are incompatible with human rights standards under international law.