"Inmate appeals denial of death-row drug details," is the AP report, via the Arizona Republic.
Attorneys for an Arizona inmate on death row are asking a federal appeals court to postpone their client's execution until officials reveal details about the two-drug combination that will be used to put him to death.
The lawyers for Joseph Rudolph Wood filed a brief Monday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a bid to delay the July 23 execution.
Wood is asking the Appeals Court to reverse a lower court's decision last week that rejected arguments that the prisoner's First Amendment rights were violated by the state's refusal to reveal the drugmakers and other details.
Attorneys for the state argue there is no First Amendment right to the information Wood sought.
Attorneys for Joseph Wood have issued a news release, "New Filing: First Amendment Guarantees Right to Execution-Related Information. Joseph Wood, Scheduled for a July 23rd execution, seeks disclosure about lethal injection process from the Ninth Circuit." Here's the full text:
Citing a long tradition of the public’s right to know and access to government proceedings, Arizona death row prisoner Joseph Wood today filed a Brief urging the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold transparency in government by granting injunctive relief in order to obtain more information. The Brief states that by withholding critical information about Mr. Wood’s planned execution, scheduled for July 23, 2014, the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) is violating the public’s First Amendment right to know how lethal injections in the State are conducted, and are reversing a long tradition of openness surrounding executions, including sharing information about lethal injection drugs as recently as two years ago.
Mr. Wood’s Brief can be accessed here.
As the Brief states, “The First Amendment grants a right of access to information about the manner and method of executions because that information is crucial to the functioning of capital punishment…Under the constitutional framework, then, the records related to the drugs to be used in an execution, the government’s reason for determining a particular method or drug amount, and the details regarding qualifications of the executioner, are all necessary parts of the execution process. This information is critical to carrying out a death sentence and is necessary to allow the public to assess capital punishment is functioning as it should.” (p. 18)
These First Amendment principles are especially important in light of the drugs Arizona intends to use. The same two drugs – midazolam and hydromorphone – were used in the problematic execution of Dennis McGuire in Ohio. On January 16, 2014, media eyewitnesses reports of Mr. McGuire’s execution observed him struggling and gasping for air in an execution that took over 20 minutes to complete.
The execution of Mr. McGuire was the first lethal injection in the United States to use the same experimental protocol that Arizona is planning to use in Mr. Wood’s execution. In addition, two other executions using midazolam have also had issues, including the prolonged and torturous botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma and the death of William Happ in Florida. These executions went awry in similar ways that implicate the use of midazolam: the prisoner appeared to fall asleep, but then began to move again.
These problematic executions confirm the value of public access to information about the source and quality of lethal injection drugs to be used. It also confirms the importance of disclosure of execution-related information to public confidence in the State’s imposition of the most severe penalty available in the criminal justice system.
“Transparency is essential for holding the government accountable,” said Dale Baich, an attorney for Mr. Wood. “It is imperative that if the government carries out capital punishment, that it does so without extreme or unnecessary secrecy.”
Mr. Wood’s Brief details that the death penalty has always been considered a public matter, noting that “the public and press have long had access to identifying information about the manufacturers of devices and chemicals used to carry out executions….The materials used in carrying out executions historically are analogous to the current day use of lethal injection drugs in lethal injection: rope used in hanging; lethal gas used in the gas chamber; high-voltage alternating current used in the electric chair; and rifles used in firing squads" (p. 21)
In fact, even in the very recent past, Arizona previously willingly released execution-related information to prisoners. In 2011, the State turned over extensive information about its supply of execution drugs to death row prisoners. However, by contrast, just two years later, in 2013, the ADC refused two prisoners’ requests for information. In response to a civil rights lawsuit similar to Mr. Wood’s, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona ordered the ADC to disclose information, reasoning that executions had historically been open to the public, the ADC had previously provided this type of information, and prisoners have a First Amendment Right of access to government information related to their executions.
In a series of letters and then a civil rights lawsuit, Mr. Wood asked for government information about his planned execution on July 23, 2014. Specifically, he requested:
- The source, manufacturer, National Drug Codes, and lot numbers of the drugs that ADC intends to use in his execution;
- Non-personally-identifying information detailing the medical, professional and controlled-substances qualifications and certifications of the personnel ADC intends to use in his execution; and
- Information and documents detailing the manner in which ADC developed its lethal injection drug protocol.
On July 10, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona declined to issue an injunction that would have prevented Arizona from carrying out Mr. Wood’s execution unless it provided him with execution-related information. The Brief that Mr. Wood filed today asks the Ninth Circuit to order ADC to comply with the First Amendment and disclose information about its execution process before it conducts a secretive lethal injection procedure which amounts to human experimentation on Mr. Wood.
Earlier coverage of this latest lethal injection challenge in Arizona begins at the link.
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