09 April 2017 :

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has upheld a federal district court preliminary injunction barring Ohio from executing Gary Otte, Ronald Phillips, and Raymond Tibbetts using the drug midazolam as part of a three-drug execution protocol or using "any other lethal injection method that employs either a paralytic agent or potassium chloride." Federal judge Michael Merz blocked Ohio's protocol in January (see JANUARY 26, 2017), ruling that the inmates were likely to succeed in showing that the use of midazolam - the 1st of 3 drugs - to render them unconscious could cause them to suffer, in violation of the Eighth Amendment. If the drug doesn't work, they would be awake for the 2nd and 3rd drugs, which stop the heart. The state appealed. Judge Karen Nelson Moore, writing for the 2-1 majority of the Sixth Circuit, said the lower court hadn't clearly erred in the January ruling. She credited the testimony of experts for the inmates who said midazolam is used to sedate patients, but that it can't produce a state of general anesthesia or unconsciousness.