A federal magistrate judge on Thursday barred the use of a three-drug cocktail the state of Ohio planned to use to execute death-row inmates, declaring the method the state prefers to be unconstitutional.
Magistrate Judge Michael Merz of Dayton also halted the executions of three inmates scheduled to be executed in the coming months, two of which came from Northeast Ohio.
Merz, in his 119-page order, ruled that there were enough problems with all three of the drugs Ohio intends to use in its execution protocol to warrant this disallowance. Two states, Arizona and Florida, have discontinued the use of one of the drugs, named midazolam.
“The Court concludes 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’ as required by (Supreme Court precedent),” Merz wrote.
The ruling is a success for the inmates challenging Ohio’s execution protocols and anti-death-penalty advocates who have sought to chip away at the state’s ability to execute people since executions resumed in 1999. It may be short lived, though, as the ruling is all but guaranteed to be appealed.
A spokeswoman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office said the office is reviewing the decision. Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said in an email that the department “remains committed to carrying out court-ordered executions in a lawful and humane manner.”
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