The Wilmington News-Journal reports, "Jackson execution on hold again." It's written by Sean O'Sullivan.
A federal judge Monday ordered a delay in the execution of convicted ax killer Robert W. Jackson III.
The execution had been set for July 29.
The ruling by District Judge Sue L. Robinson marks the second time that Robinson has ordered a stay in the execution of Jackson, who was convicted of the 1992 slaying of Elizabeth Girardi at her home in Hockessin during a botched robbery.
In May 2006, Robinson stopped Jackson's previous date with the execution chamber because of a Jackson lawsuit -- that was later turned into a class action -- alleging that the way Delaware carried out lethal injections violated the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
After Delaware adopted new execution protocols, with new safeguards against unnecessary suffering, Robinson dismissed Jackson's lawsuit in February 2010, allowing executions in the state to resume.
On Monday, however, Robinson imposed a new stay, apparently because of concerns about the state of Delaware changing one of the three drugs used in lethal injections, a drug that was specified in the execution protocols that Robinson approved last year.
The judge has set July 27 to hear from both Jackson's attorneys with the Federal Community Defender's office in Philadelphia -- who charge that changing the drug violates the terms of Robinson's February 2010 ruling -- and Delaware prosecutors -- who allege that the change is minor and the execution should go forward as scheduled.
And:
If Jackson's execution goes forward on July 29, it will be the first execution in the state since November 2005.
Delaware changed its execution protocols earlier this year because, like many states that execute using lethal injection, it could not obtain any sodium thiopental, one of three drugs used in that execution method. The sole U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental has stopped making it.
"Judge stays execution of Del. killer," is the AP filing by Randall Chase, via the Westport News.
A federal judge on Monday halted an execution scheduled for later this month so she can hear arguments in a convicted killer's latest challenge of Delaware's use of lethal injection.
Robert Jackson III, 38, was scheduled to be executed July 29 for the 1992 murder of Elizabeth Girardi. The 47-year-old was killed with an ax after she encountered Jackson and another man leaving her Hockessin home with property they had stolen.
But U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson issued a one-page order putting Jackson's execution on hold and scheduling oral arguments July 27 in his latest federal appeal.
Jackson's attorneys note in court papers filed last month that Delaware has added a new drug, pentobarbital, to its execution protocol since Robinson ruled in 2009 that the state's three-drug lethal injection process was constitutional.
Jackson's attorneys argue that Robinson should reopen their case because pentobarbital was not part of the execution protocol she approved two years ago. They also argue that sodium thiopental, the drug for which pentobarbital would substitute, is no longer legally available but still on the state's list of drug options. They contend that presents the possibility that executioners could use expired or illegally imported sodium thiopental.
Earlier lethal injection coverage from Delaware begins at the link. The Delaware capital sentencing scheme has also received attention lately. Related posts are in the lethal injection index.
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