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| High Court Stops Execution for AZ Inmate |
| By foxnews.com - AP |
| Published: 05/25/2011 |
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PHOENIX -- The Arizona Supreme Court has stopped the scheduled execution of an inmate who was scheduled to be put to death Wednesday morning for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old Tempe girl in 1984. The temporary stay of execution signed by Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch was issued Tuesday night after a motion was filed with the state's highest court and the U.S. District Court in Phoenix by lawyers for convicted killer Donald Beaty. Arizona officials had planned to replace one of three drugs to be used in the execution because federal officials contended the state failed to fill out a form to import the drug being swapped out. Defense attorney Dale Baich said Beaty hadn't received adequate opportunity to review the late change in drug protocol and "a rush to execute Beaty under these circumstances would be unconscionable." The attorney general's office notified the state Supreme Court on Tuesday that the Corrections Department would replace sodium thiopental with another sedative -- pentobarbital. The state's filing said the Corrections Department was making the swap because a U.S. Justice Department official told the state the Drug Enforcement Administration believes the Corrections Department "failed to fill out one of the forms necessary for importation of sodium thiopental from a foreign source." Defense lawyers for Arizona death row inmates for months have questioned whether the state legally imported its supply of sodium thiopental. State officials previously acknowledged a miscoding on an importation form but insisted they acted legally in obtaining a supply of sodium thiopental from a British supplier last year. "The question of whether the Department of Corrections legally imported the drug has now been answered," Baich said before the temporary stay was granted. Several other states have already switched to pentobarbital because sodium thiopental is in short supply nationally, and state Corrections Director Charles Ryan has said previously that Arizona planned to switch to that drug also. Read More. |
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