A current Supreme Court case may affect the way Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola executes its death row inmates.
In September 2007, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the arguments of Ralph Baze and Thomas Bowling, two death row inmates, against John Rees, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
Baze and Bowling claim the way the state of Kentucky delivers lethal injections to death row inmates violates the Eighth Amendment. The amendment states “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted.”
The arguments were held at the Supreme Court on Jan. 7. Donald Verrilli Jr., attorney for Baze and Bowling, argued on behalf of the petitioners.
In the Supreme Court transcript, Verrilli said Kentucky’s lethal injection procedures pose a danger of cruel and inhumane executions.
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the petitioners, the 35 states that use lethal injection as their form of execution may have to change the way they apply it. Louisiana is one of those 35 states.
There are currently 85 people – 83 men and 2 women – on death row in Louisiana. The men are held at Angola and the women at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women.
Louisiana’s lethal injection procedure uses a three drug “cocktail”. The first drug, sodium pentothal, causes the person to become unconscious. The second, pancuronium bromide, paralyzes the person. Finally, the third drug, potassium chloride, stops the heart and kills the person.
“If the first drug in the three-drug sequence … is not effectively administered … the third drug will inflict an excruciating burning pain as it courses through the veins,” Verrilli said to the Supreme Court.
Verrilli suggested to the Court lethal injections should use a single three-gram dose of thiopental, which experts for both sides of the case agreed to ensure a painless death.
Roy Englert, attorney for Rees, said to the Supreme Court he agreed with Verrilli about the pain of the execution if the first drug is administered incorrectly. His argument, however, said there are safeguards in place to prevent improper executions.
Louisiana has not performed an execution since May 10, 2002.
Angie Norwood, assistant warden and public relations director at Angola, said there have not been any cases where lethal injection has gone awry in Louisiana.
Pam Laborde, communications director for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said in an e-mail, “Louisiana and the Department will follow the law of the land, whatever that may be after the decision is rendered.”
The Supreme Court has yet to come up with a final decision.
—-Contact J.J. Alcantara at [email protected]