AG urges Supreme Court to uphold execution drug

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a lethal injection drug that the state plans to use at its next execution.

Attorney General Luther Strange on Wednesday filed the brief ahead of April 29 arguments regarding the effectiveness of the sedative midazolam in rendering an inmate unconscious at the start of executions. An Oklahoma inmate challenged the drug as cruel and unusual punishment after it was used in problematic executions.

The outcome of the Oklahoma case will directly impact the death penalty in Alabama. The state last year announced a switch to a new drug combination that begins with an injection of midazolam.

“These killers have raped and murdered children and stabbed prison guards to death. It is outrageous for them to argue that lethal injection has too high a risk of pain to be a constitutional method of execution. It is better than they deserve,” Strange said.

Death penalty states have struggled in recent years to find lethal injection drugs after European manufacturers became hesitant to supply the chemicals for use in executions.

Florida developed the new protocol using midazolam and has used it in 11 executions, lawyers for Alabama wrote.

“After watching Florida successfully execute inmates without incident, Alabama and other states that were unable to obtain barbiturates began using midazolam as well,” lawyers for the state said.

“The fact remains that midazolam is the one of the best drugs the states have available to render an inmate unconscious.”

Alabama announced a switch to a new drug combination last year but has yet to use it in an execution. Midazolam would be given at the start of an execution to render an inmate unconscious before injections of rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride stop an inmate’s breathing and heart.

The Oklahoma inmate has argued that midazolam is ineffective as a sedative and that he would feel the painful effects of the later drugs. Midazolam was used in a botched Oklahoma execution last year when inmate Clayton Lockett took 43 minutes to die.