Court stays Alabama execution to decide on use of drug

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday halted an Alabama execution scheduled for next week to decide on death row inmates’ argument that Alabama plans to use a sedative which will not render them unconscious before other drugs stop their lungs and heart.

A three-judge panel granted the emergency stay requested by Robert Bryant Melson. Melson was scheduled to be executed June 8 for killing three Gadsden restaurant employees during a 1994 robbery.

Melson is one of several inmates who filed lawsuits, which were consolidated, arguing that the state’s execution method is unconstitutional. A federal judge in March dismissed the lawsuits, and the inmates appealed to the 11th Circuit saying the judge prematurely dismissed their claims.

A three-judge panel of 11th Circuit judges did not indicate whether they thought the inmates would succeed in their appeals. To the contrary, the judges wrote Friday that they were staying Melson’s execution to avoid the “untenable” prejudging of the inmates’ cases.

The inmates claim Alabama’s use of the sedative midazolam at the start of the execution will not render them unconscious before other drugs stop their lungs and heart and that Alabama does not effectively check for consciousness.

Melson’s lawyers wrote in a Friday motion that the state “botched” a December execution in which inmate Ronald Bert Smith coughed and moved for 13 minutes.