The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit's en banc ruling in Taylor v. Lombardi, with Judge Bye's dissent, is available in Adobe .pdf format.
The Guardian reports, "US judge attacks states' lethal injection methods as 'high school chemistry'," by Ed Pilkington. Here's the beginning of this must-read:
A federal appeals court judge has issued a scathing attack on the secret use by death penalty states of compounding pharmacies to supply drugs deployed in lethal injections, ridiculing the source of Wednesday morning’s execution in Missouri as possibly “nothing more than a high school chemistry class”.
Kermit Bye, a federal judge on the US court of appeals for the eighth circuit, issued his dissent just hours before Michael Taylor, 47, was executed for the 1989 murder of a 15-year-old girl, Ann Harrison, in Kansas City. Taylor was put to death using a massive dose of the sedative pentobarbital obtained by the department of corrections from a pharmacist whose identity the state refused to disclose.
The eighth circuit declined to award Taylor a stay of execution, as did the US supreme court that cleared the way for the lethal injection to go ahead. But in his dissent, Bye made one of the most impassioned arguments yet from a federal judge decrying the creeping secrecy in the practice of the death penalty in America.
He pointed out that the eighth amendment of the US constitution “prohibits the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain through torture, barbarous methods, or methods resulting in a lingering death”. Bye then went on to argue that given “the absolute dearth of information Missouri has disclosed to this court, the ‘pharmacy’ on which Missouri relies could be nothing more than a high school chemistry class.”
He added: “I once again fear Missouri elevates the ends over the means in its rush to execute Taylor.”
Smithsonian Magazine posts, "A Drug Company Tried to Block the Use of Pentobarbital in Executions, But U.S. States Are Finding Ways Around the Ban," by Rachel Nuwer.
"Secret Execution Drugs Used Again in Missouri," is by Lauren Galik at Reason.
Also from Missouri, AP reports, "Lawmaker wants more death penalty oversight," via KBIA-FM.
Republican Rep. Eric Burlison said Wednesday that his bill would make Missouri's lethal injection method more transparent and accountable to the public.
The measure would require the state Corrections Department to submit a formal outline of an execution procedure to a legislative panel. The panel could then conduct hearings and take public comment on the proposed execution method. The full Legislature would also be able to veto the proposed method.
"Missouri senator proposes death penalty bill," is another AP filing, also via KBIA-FM.
A Missouri Republican is proposing legislation intended to speed executions of those who kidnapped their murder victims.
The legislation would limit extensions for appeals, and the Missouri Supreme Court would need to hear arguments in a case within six months of submission of the last written argument. The high court would have another six months to issue its decision.
Earlier coverage from Missouri begins at the link.
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