State Court Approves Washington State's Lethal Injection Procedure

Saturday's Tacoma News Tribune carried the AP report, "Superior Court upholds state death penalty," by Rachel LaCorte.

A judge has affirmed Washington state’s procedures for executing prisoners by lethal injection, turning aside complaints that condemned inmates could be partially conscious when fatal drugs flow into their veins.

In a ruling released Friday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham said that the inmates presented no evidence that the state “intended to impose punishment that was ‘cruel.’” He said the method was constitutional under both the state and U.S. constitutions.

“The procedure to be used by defendants, although not fail-safe, appears to have been designed to administer the death penalty in a way that is humane for the inmate and the observers,” Wickham wrote.

“It is an attempt to provide some dignity to this most grave event.”

The lawsuit, filed by three death-row inmates, argued that Washington’s preferred method of execution needs a major overhaul to satisfy constitutional bans on cruel punishment.

Two attorneys for the inmates, Sherilyn Peterson and Scott Engelhard, said they had not yet had a chance to look at the ruling Friday morning, but said it would be appealed. A message left with a third attorney, Suzanne Elliott, was not immediately returned Friday.

The lawsuit did not seek to end the death penalty in Washington. Instead, the inmates’ lawyers asked the state to trade its current mix of three intravenous drugs for a large dose of one powerful sedative — an approach that plaintiffs said would kill a condemned prisoner with virtually no risk of pain or suffering.

Attorneys for the state countered that Washington’s lethal injection system passes constitutional tests because it is substantially similar to a Kentucky system upheld last year by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Judge affirms Wash. lethal injection method," is another version of  LaCorte's AP report via the Seattle Times.

Attorney General Rob McKenna will ask the Washington state Supreme Court to lift the stay of execution of a death row inmate after a judge ruled Friday that the state's lethal injection procedures were constitutional.

Assistant Attorney General John Samson said that they will file a motion with the court next week to vacate the stay of execution of Cal Coburn Brown after Friday morning's ruling by Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham.

Brown was one of three death-row inmates who argued that Washington's preferred method of execution needed a major overhaul to satisfy constitutional bans on cruel punishment.

But Wickham ruled that the inmates presented no evidence that the state "intended to impose punishment that was 'cruel.'" He said the method was constitutional under both the state and U.S. Constitutions.

"The procedure to be used by defendants, although not fail-safe, appears to have been designed to administer the death penalty in a way that is humane for the inmate and the observers," Wickham wrote. "It is an attempt to provide some dignity to this most grave event."

In March, the state Supreme Court stayed Brown's execution just hours before he was set to die. The stay was granted based on the Thurston County lawsuit.

Now that that ruling has been issued, McKenna spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie said that the state can seek to have the stay lifted.

Earlier coverage of the Washington challenge is here.  Coverage of the resignation of the Washington prison system's top doctor over lethal injection issues is here.