"Arizona execution process faces legal challenge," is the AP report written by Amanda Lee Myers. It's via the Arizona Daily Star.
In Arizona's death chamber in the minutes just before an execution, inmates lay strapped to a table with a white sheet pulled up to their necks.
Witnesses who are there partially to ensure that the inmates don't experience unnecessary pain don't see anything leading up to that point - it's just a person on a table about to be put to death with an injection they can't see.
The veiled process and other procedures followed by the Arizona Department of Corrections are being challenged in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Neil Wake scheduled a trial in the matter for Oct. 11 and can rule that the department is violating inmates' constitutional rights in the way it conducts executions, or find that the department has acted properly.
"All you see is a head sticking out from a sheet, and a guy sort of looks around, maybe makes a last statement and then closes his eyes," said Dale Baich, a federal public defender who has represented the most recent inmates executed in Arizona. "We want more transparency in the process, and that's what we hope comes of this litigation."
Baich argues that the Corrections Department is violating inmates' constitutional rights and deviating from execution protocol in five ways. Among them: using a new execution drug, using the groin area as the injection site and failing to leave injections uncovered.
He compared Arizona's process with some other states' procedures, during which witnesses see every step, including injections, he said.
Assistant Attorney General Kent Cattani, who will argue against Baich at trial, said the corrections officials themselves dictate protocol and can change it anytime they see fit.
"An inmate can challenge a change, but they have to show there's a high likelihood of significant pain or suffering because of the change," he said.
And:
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco turned down a motion to delay last Tuesday's execution of Thomas Paul West over the legal challenge to the department's procedures, ruling that he'd failed to prove there was a substantial risk that he would experience severe pain during the execution.
But at a hearing the day before the execution, Judge Kim Wardlaw said the Corrections Department needs to follow protocol.
Earlier coverage of Arizona lethal injection issues begins at the link. Related posts are in the lethal injection index.
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