The opinion is here, in Adobe .pdf format.
The Wilmington News Journal reports, "Court upholds state's death penalty." It's written by Sean O'Sullivan.
Delaware's death penalty was upheld as constitutional on Monday, paving the way for executions -- on hold since May 2006 -- to resume.
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said Monday he was pleased the court ruled that Delaware is meeting its constitutional obligations and that his office will be working with Superior Court to begin "scheduling executions as appropriate."
Biden said the three-year delay "caused uncertainty, and I'm glad this has resolved that uncertainty."
In its 47-page opinion, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals warned Delaware about "the worrisome course it appears to have taken at times" in executions.
"The record before us reflects an occasional blitheness on Delaware's part that, while perhaps not unconstitutional, gives us great pause. We remind Delaware not only of its constitutional obligation ... but also of its moral obligation to carry out executions with the degree of seriousness and respect that the state-administered termination of human life demands," Circuit Judge D. Michael Fisher wrote on behalf of the panel.
Attorney Michael Wiseman of the Federal Community Defender's office in Philadelphia -- which represents Delaware's 18 death-row inmates in the class-action lawsuit -- declined to comment Monday, saying he was still reviewing the opinion.
In court papers, attorneys for Delaware's condemned inmates detailed problems during executions, including inadequate qualifications and training of execution team members, improper dosages of the lethal injection drugs and odd procedures such as the execution team mixing drugs in the dark.
And:
Attorneys here focused on the November 2005 execution of Brian Steckel -- the last person put to death in Delaware. During Steckel's execution, an intravenous line used to deliver the deadly drug cocktail became blocked and the procedure took far longer than usual.
At one point in the execution, Steckel -- who was convicted in the 1994 slaying of Sandra Lee Long -- looked up at prison officials and said, "I didn't think it would take this long."
Instead of quietly falling unconscious, Steckel snorted and convulsed before dying.
While clearly troubled by some of this evidence, the appeals court nonetheless said it viewed the problems as "a string of isolated examples of maladministration."
It is not clear on what date lethal injection executions will resume in Delaware or which death-row inmate will be the first scheduled to die.
The AP report, "Appeals court upholds Delaware’s execution scheme," by Randall Chase is via Delmarva Now.
A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Delaware’s use of lethal injection is constitutional, clearing the way for executions to resume but warning the state to follow its own rules.
A three-judge panel upheld a ruling by District Judge Sue Robinson last March that death row inmates in Delaware had failed to demonstrate that the state’s new lethal injection protocol, which has never been used, carries a significant or intolerable risk of pain that might amount to cruel or unusual punishment.
The appeals court lifted a stay on executions that Robinson had kept in place pending appeal of her ruling, which came in a lawsuit filed before the state changed its execution procedure in 2008. The changes were designed to ensure that a condemned inmate is rendered unconscious by the anesthetic sodium thiopental before receiving fatal and potentially painful doses of two paralytic drugs, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.
The panel nevertheless said it expects Delaware not to repeat mistakes surrounding previous executions. Robinson noted in her ruling that some condemned inmates received improper doses of the three-drug combination, and that officials failed to keep written records and ensure that execution teams were properly trained.
“Our holding, of course, should in no way be construed as license for Delaware to stay the worrisome course it appears to have taken at times under its former protocol,” Judge D. Michael Fisher wrote for the appeals panel.
“The record before us reflects an occasional blitheness on Delaware’s part that, while perhaps not unconstitutional, gives us great pause,” Fisher added. “We remind Delaware not only of its constitutional obligation to ensure that the implementation of its new protocol does not run afoul of the Eighth Amendment’s proscription of cruel and unusual punishment, but also of its moral obligation to carry out executions with the degree of seriousness and respect that the state-administered termination of human life demands.”
And:
The panel specifically found no evidence that any of the 13 inmates executed by lethal injection in Delaware since 1992, including Steckel, were still conscious when they received the first lethal paralytic. Even assuming that Steckel suffered great pain because of problems injecting him with sodium thiopental, the panel said the Supreme Court had ruled in the Kentucky case that a single mistake does not demonstrate that the protocol itself carries a substantial risk of serious harm.
Earlier coverage from Delaware is here; related posts, in the lethal injection index. More on Baze v. Rees is via Oyez.
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