That's the title of an AP report filed by Kim Chandler, via AL.com.
An attorney for a condemned inmate said Alabama's new lethal injection drug combination needs to be scrutinized by the courts before it is used because it relies on a drug involved in two recently botched executions.
Lawyers for death row inmate Tommy Arthur on Friday filed paperwork with the Alabama Supreme Court opposing the state's request to set an execution date for him.
One of Arthur's lawyers said the state is trying to put Arthur to death before courts have assessed the constitutionality of the new three-drug combination adopted by the Department of Corrections.
"Judicial review of this significantly changed protocol is especially critical because the state of Alabama plans to use as the first drug -- midazolam hydrochloride -- the same drug used in several recently botched executions in other states, including those of Dennis McGuire in Ohio and Joseph Wood in Arizona," attorney Suhana S. Han wrote.
And:
Alabama last executed an inmate in 2013 and has been unable to carry out lethal injections since running out of a drug used under the old protocol.
The Department of Corrections adopted a new lethal injection procedure in September and the attorney general's office moved to seek execution dates for nine inmates who have spent between 16 and 24 years on Alabama's death row.
Earlier coverage from Alabama begins at the link.
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