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| Suit filed against Kentucky's method of lethal injection |
| By Herald-Leader |
| Published: 08/16/2004 |
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Kentucky's method of executing prisoners by lethal injection is flawed, in part because it will probably cause horrific pain to the condemned, and it should be declared unconstitutional, the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy is arguing in a lawsuit. DPA attorneys filed the lawsuit last week on behalf of Thomas Clyde Bowling, convicted of killing a young Lexington couple and wounding their son; and Ralph Baze of Powell County, who shot and killed two police officers. The suit in Franklin Circuit Court seeks court orders barring the state from using its current method of lethal injection on the two. The state adopted lethal injection in 1998 in order to phase out use of the electric chair. It has used chemical injection only once, executing Eddie Lee Harper of Louisville in May 1999 after he dropped his appeals and asked to have his death sentence carried out because he didn't want to spend more years in prison. The lawsuit argues Harper's execution showed the potential for problems with the state's current method of injecting three chemicals. An autopsy showed the level of an anesthetic in Harper's bloodstream was low, meaning there was a probability of at least 67 percent he was conscious and suffered terror and tremendous pain as another drug designed to stop his heart "seared through his body," the lawsuit said. Attorneys for Bowling and Baze filed the suit now because the two are near the end of their court appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court will probably decide by early October whether to review Bowling's case, according to the suit. If the high court denies review, that would end Bowling's court appeals process, and Gov. Ernie Fletcher could schedule his execution before the end of the year. Baze's case is one step behind, at the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The two Death Row inmates' lawsuit is the first challenge to lethal injection in Kentucky. |
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