The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, "Julie Love killer to attend hearing on execution method." It's written by Bill Rankin and Rhonda Cook.
A Fulton County judge will hold a hearing Friday on condemned killer Emmanuel Hammond's claim that his scheduled execution next week should be stopped until the state provides records concerning the drugs they will use to carry out the lethal injection.
Judge Michael Johnson has asked that Hammond be brought to Atlanta from his cell on Death Row at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson 50 miles away for the 1 p.m. hearing.
Hammond's lawyers have decided not to ask the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to stop his execution, scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m., for the 1988 abduction and murder of Julie Love in a case that gained wide publicity at the time. Instead, his lawyers are focusing on the courts, according to Atlanta lawyer Brian Mendelsohn.
That strategy includes a lawsuit filed Thursday seeking a stay of execution and contending that the state has failed to provide requested information about the drugs to be used for Hammond's execution by lethal injection.
The issue of drugs used in lethal injection is national. Some states have found the drugs they have in stock have expired. There also is a shortage of the sedative that Georgia and other states administer at the beginning of the process.
Prison officials have said Georgia has an adequate supply of the drugs.
The AP report by Greg Bluestein is, "Condemned Ga. man wants lethal injection details," via the Macon Telegraph.
A condemned Georgia man scheduled to die next week asked a judge Thursday to delay the execution because his lawyers claim the state won't hand over key details about a lethal injection drug that has been hard to track down amid a nationwide shortage.
The lawsuit, filed in Fulton County Superior Court by the Southern Center for Human Rights, asks the judge to halt Emmanuel Hammond's execution until the Georgia Department of Corrections details the cost, inventory and expiration dates for the drugs used in executions.
And:
The lawsuit contends that state officials denied the request because they claimed it could "compromise security against sabotage, criminal or terroristic acts." But the suit says those records are of "high public interest" and should be subject to inspection. Refusing to release them violates Georgia's sunshine laws, it said.
"The state has hid from public view critical records about whether the lethal injection process is medically and constitutionally acceptable," said Gerald Weber, an attorney with the Atlanta-based center. "If the state does not have the necessary chemicals, or is using expired ones, it cannot hide those facts from Georgians."
State officials declined to comment on the lawsuit. But corrections spokeswoman Peggy Chapman said that Georgia has "an appropriate supply of sodium thiopental and is prepared to carry out the order of the sentencing court."
The lawsuit is just one of Hammond's legal avenues in the run-up to the execution. Hammond's attorney Brian Mendelsohn said Thursday he won't be seeking clemency at a Board of Pardons and Paroles hearing scheduled for Friday, and instead will focus on "litigating his case in the courts."
Related posts are in the lethal injection index.
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