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| Lawsuit calls execution method cruel |
| By The Associated Press |
| Published: 08/29/2005 |
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Even as Missouri officials prepare to execute Timothy Johnston next week for killing his wife, a lawsuit questioning the method of execution remains unresolved. The suit on behalf of Johnston, 44, claims Missouri's three-drug method of lethal injection violates his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. It was filed more than a year ago in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, and the court denied the state's motion to dismiss it as frivolous. Johnston's attorney, Chris McGraugh of St. Louis, is seeking a temporary injunction to halt the execution scheduled for 12:01 a.m. Aug. 31 at the prison in Bonne Terre, at least until the lawsuit is decided. A hearing on the injunction is Friday. "The court has said we're entitled to move through the system with this lawsuit," McGraugh said Wednesday. "Give us our day in court. That's all we're asking for." A spokesman for Gov. Matt Blunt declined comment. Attorney General Jay Nixon, whose office is representing the state, said the lawsuit is an effort to "delay the inevitable." "The state of Missouri has gone to great lengths with the help of scientific and medical personnel to make our system quick and effective," Nixon said. On June 30, 1989, paramedics responded to a 911 call to Johnston's home in St. Louis. The sidewalk and porch were bloody. Inside, they found Johnston bent over the body of his wife, Nancy, her face and torso swollen and bloodied. She was declared dead at the scene. An autopsy revealed a broken nose, collarbone and ribs; severe injuries to her head, face and scalp; bruising and tearing in her liver, heart and spleen. Bleeding under the skin indicated she was alive through most of the beating. Johnston initially blamed a motorcycle gang, but later confessed. He said he killed her because he believed she had been unfaithful. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Missouri has executed 61 inmates, all men, since the death penalty was renewed in 1989. All 61 were put to death by injection. Other lawsuits nationally have claimed lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. Johnston's lawsuit questions the way Missouri does it. In Missouri, the condemned inmate lies on a gurney in a plain white room, viewed by witnesses from his family, the victim's family and the state - typically media and perhaps police officers or prosecutors involved in the case. From another room, unseen by observers, a Department of Corrections employee is directed to begin the process. Through an IV tube running from the unseen room to the execution chamber, the inmate is injected first with sodium pentothal, which renders him unconscious. About a minute later, panchromium bromide, which stops the respiratory system, is administered. Finally, usually after another minute, potassium chloride, which stops the heart, is injected. Typically, the inmate is declared dead about three minutes after the process begins, though a few of the executions have taken longer. But the lawsuit claims there is no guarantee that the first drug always works. "What we're saying is that if you don't administer the first drug right, what happens when the second one gets in you is it paralyzes you with no way to indicate to anyone that you're being suffocated," McGaugh said. The lawsuit also questions why Corrections Department staffers, and not medical personnel, administer the injections. Corrections Department spokesman John Fougere declined to discuss details of the process, citing safety and security reasons. He said medical staff members are present, but declined to say what role they play. A ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court in 1997 rejected several other arguments aimed at stopping Johnston's execution. Among other things, the court ruled that neurological testing showed he did not suffer from brain damage. It also turned away arguments that the case lacked premeditation, ruling that courts have repeatedly upheld the death sentence where the victim was abused, beaten and tortured. |
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