"State asks judge to back execution changes," is the AP report by Matt Volz, via the Helena Independent Record. It's also available from the Republic.
The state has asked a judge to back the changes it made to its lethal-injection procedures and dismiss the claims of two death-row inmates and a civil-liberties group that the revisions still put condemned prisoners at risk of unnecessary suffering.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Ronald Allen Smith and William Gollehon are rehashing old arguments and improperly bringing up new ones in asking District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock to rule the execution changes unconstitutional, Assistant Attorney General Mark Fowler said in Friday's filing.
The changes made in January by the Montana Department of Corrections were done to address the clearly defined constitutional concerns Sherlock stated in a September order, Fowler said.
And:
The plaintiffs argued that pentobarbital is not an adequate substitute for sodium pentothal and the two-drug procedure creates the risk that the inmate will suffer before death. Many states now use a one-drug procedure, the inmates' attorneys argued.
The changes were made without input from medical professionals and the revisions don't spell out how the warden will choose the qualified person to monitor the inmate or how the drugs will be administered, according to the inmates' attorneys.
Earlier coverage of Montana lethal injection issues begins at the link.
Comments