"Execution set Tuesday for Okla. death row inmate," is Tim Talley's AP report, via the Alva Review-Courier.
The 10th Circuit on Friday rejected Hooper's challenge to the state's death row procedures after he claimed he could suffer if the sedative given as part of a three-drug combination isn't effective. A federal judge had previously called the complaint speculative and said Hooper didn't show there was a "substantial risk of severe pain."
After the appellate court panel agreed Friday, Hooper's lawyer, Jim Drummond, said he had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the challenge.
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports, "Oklahoma Execution Set After Lethal Injection Challenge Fails." It's posted by Steve Eder.
Oklahoma is set to execute Michael Hooper on Tuesday after a federal appeals court rejected his challenges of the state’s death penalty procedures.
Last month, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said it obtained 20 doses of the sedative pentobarbital, which is used in its three-drug lethal injection cocktail. The state was down to its last dose of the drug before it acquired the additional supplies, court records in Mr. Hoopers’ case show.
Mr. Hooper, a convicted murderer, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to halt his execution because of concerns about the newly-obtained doses of pentobarbital, among others.
On Friday, the appeals court affirmed a district court’s ruling that rejected Mr. Hooper’s challenges. His lawyer, Jim Simmons, said he is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his challenge.
“My client was not wanting a delay. He just wants [the state] to do it right,” Mr. Simmons said of the execution.
Earlier coverage of Michael Hooper's lethal injection challenge begins at the link.
To date there have been 26 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,303 post-Furman executions since 1977. Oklahoma has executed three men thus far in 2012.
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