07 February 2017 :

Federal judge Michael Merz on Thursday blocked Ohio's lethal injection protocol. The protocol, which uses three drugs, was rejected as the sedative midazolam was deemed insufficiently humane. The sedative has been used in numerous states that experienced problematic executions. Prisoners argued that use of the sedative violated their Eighth Amendment rights. US District Court Magistrate Judge Michael Merz found that "use of midazolam as the first drug in Ohio's present three-drug protocol will create a 'substantial risk of serious harm' or an 'objectively intolerable risk of harm.'" Judge Merz agreed with the attorneys for 3 death row inmates that it wasn't certain the sedative midazolam wouldn't cause "substantial risk of serious harm." The plaintiffs are the next three people scheduled to be executed in Ohio in the first part of this year. Ronald Phillips was scheduled for execution on Feb. 15, Gary Otte on March 15 and Raymond Tibbetts on April 12 according to the Ohio Department of Corrections. The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Glossip v. Gross last year (see June 29, 2015) that Oklahoma's use of midazolam as part of its lethal injection protocol does not violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and thus was not unconstitutional. Merz noted that the Supreme Court decision does not mean that midazolam could never been found to be inhumane and one issue in that case was that no logical alternative had been provided. Merz noted that such an alternative is available in this case: “All the parties and witnesses in this case agree that use of a barbiturate, either as the first drug in a three-drug protocol or as the sole drug, would be preferable to the current Ohio protocol in that it would eliminate the side effects observed in midazolam-involved executions identified in the lay testimony and would also eliminate (or at least reduce to a constitutionally acceptable level) the risk of subjecting the inmate to severe pain”. Executions have been put on as a result of today's decision.