WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday it will review a drug protocol used for executions in multiple states to determine if it violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The court will review a petition put forth by four inmates on death row about the use of midazolam, a general anesthetic, along with other drugs in lethal injection cocktails. One of those inmates, Charles Warner, was executed last week in Oklahoma after the Supreme Court declined to stay his execution.
Warner's execution was Oklahoma's first since the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April. After receiving an injection including midazolam, Lockett had convulsions and reportedly tried to speak and lift his head even after doctors declared him unconscious. It took him 43 minutes to die after the injection.
After Warner was injected with the drug, he said, "my body is on fire."
Related
"Petitioners have committed horrific crimes, and should be punished," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote of the court's decision to decline a stay of execution for Warner. "But the Eighth Amendment guarantees that no one should be subjected to an execution that causes searing, unnecessary pain before death. I hope that our failure to act today does not portend our unwillingness to consider these questions."
Lawyers representing Oklahoma said there's no evidence midazolam doesn't work for its intended use.
"It is undisputed that Oklahoma's protocol, which is identical to Florida's protocol, has been used 10 times in executions without serious incident," the state argued in its brief. "Petitioners can only cite to executions that took place using different drug combinations, or the Oklahoma execution of offender Lockett, in which IV access was subsequently found to be insufficient and flawed."
The Supreme Court will likely hear the case in April.
