Trial on execution protocol paused

A nonjury trial in which 18 death-row inmates are challenging the constitutionality of the state’s lethal-injection protocol convened only briefly Thursday and is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. today.

Because of an emergency in her family, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker delayed the start of Thursday’s proceedings and then, later in the day, convened court just long enough to hear brief testimony from someone who had viewed an execution that was carried out using the challenged protocol.

The trial is expected to last through the end of next week.

The inmates say the state’s use of midazolam, a sedative, as the first of three drugs injected intravenously, isn’t sufficient to protect them from experiencing agonizing pain from the second injection of vecuronium bromide, a paralytic, and the third injection of potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

The inmates are being represented by attorneys John C. Williams, Julie Vandiver and Scott Braden of the federal public defender’s office in Little Rock, as well as attorney Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock.

They are Justin Anderson, Ray Dansby, Don Davis, Gregory Decay, Kenneth Isom, Alvin Jackson, Latavious Johnson, Stacey Johnson, Timothy Kemp, Brandon Lacy, Zachariah Marcyniuk, Jason McGehee, Terrick Nooner, Roderick Rankin, Andrew Sasser, Thomas Springs, Mickey Thomas and Bruce Ward. Although McGehee’s death sentence was commuted in 2017 to life in prison, he remains a plaintiff in the case.

The defendants, Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Wendy Kelley, director of the state Department of Correction, who are sued in their official capacities only, contend the three-drug protocol doesn’t violate the inmates’ Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

They are being represented by senior assistant attorneys general Jennifer Merritt and Christine Cryer, assistant attorney general Ka Tina Guest and Solicitor General Nicholas Bronni.