That's the title of the Canadian Press report filed by Bill Graveland on the Montana lethal injection challenge. It's via the Calgary Herald. Here's an extended excerpt:
A Canadian who is fighting for his life on Montana’s death row scored a minor legal victory Thursday after a judge declared the state’s method of execution unconstitutional.The American Civil Liberties Union filed a civil lawsuit in 2008 on behalf of Ronald Smith that argued the lethal injections the state uses are cruel and unusual punishment and violate the right to human dignity.
District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock has agreed, pointing to problems such as lack of training for the individual who administers the drug, a discrepancy over whether two or three drugs should be used in the execution and the method used to determine if the inmate is actually unconscious.
“The Montana protocol has problems,” said Sherlock in his 26-page judgment.
“All three of these concerns create a substantial risk of serious harm violative of the plaintiff’s right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment.”
But Sherlock noted it wouldn’t be difficult to bring the protocol into line with what is expected.
“The court notes, theoretically, the legislature and the Department of Corrections can easily make changes to the protocol as are found wanting in this decision. These changes can be made quickly and, if done, the modified protocol could not be found in violation of the Montana Constitution.”
Smith’s lawyer said the ruling wasn’t a knockout but does buy his client some time.
“It’s a temporary victory. It was a given,” said Don Vernay, who practises law in Albuquerque, N.M. “When you’re executing people in a mobile home, you don’t really have your act together.
“They’ll just have to redo it. The stay remains in place. Judge Sherlock is the one who issued the stay so obviously now there’s nothing they can do until they make a new one and then it comes back to court again. So we’re years away probably.”
The order in Smith v. Montana is available in Adobe .pdf format.
"Judge finds execution method unconstitutional," is by Katie Schneider at the Sun News.
Ronald Smith cannot be put to death anytime soon, says his lawyer, after a Montana judge on Thursday declared the state's method of injection as unconstitutional.The only Canadian on death row in the US, who will celebrate his 55th birthday Friday, received a small victory in his battle for his life following the decision by Judge Jeffrey Sherlock.
"Basically he decided as a matter of law, that Montana's lethal injection protocol was not constitutional, so what that will actually mean is they will have to go back and make a new protocol for executing people," Smith's lawyer Don Vernay said.
Vernay said while it's a decision in Smith's favour, it doesn't impact his case too much right now.
"In the event things were to go against us, there couldn't be an execution for the foreseeable future," he said.
In 2008, the American Civil Liberties Association launched a challenge against Montana's lethal injection protocol.
"The drug is just one facet of it -- it also has to do with the people who are qualified to administer it, the facility they have, it's a lot more involved than just the drug," Vernay said.
Smith was sentenced to death in 1983 for shooting to death cousins Harvey Mad Man Jr. and Thomas Running Rabbit.
The ultimate decision on whether Smith will be granted clemency rests with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
Earlier coverage of Montana lethal injection issues begins at the link. Related posts are in the lethal injection index.
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