United States Sixth Circuit

An Ohio inmate's motion for a stay of his execution is granted and remanded for fact-finding and evidentiary hearings on the merits in light of Ohio's revision of its execution protocol in May 2009 where the state experienced serious and troubling difficulties in executing at least three inmates, giving rise to at least two questions: 1) whether Ohio is fully and competently adhering to the Ohio lethal injection protocol given (a) their failure to have a contingency plan in place should peripheral vein access be impossible, (b) issues related to the competence of the lethal injection team, and (c) other potential deficiencies; and 2) whether these instances present sufficient new, additional factors to revive petitioner's Eight Amendment claims otherwise extinguished by Cooey v. Strickland, 479 F.3d 412 (6th Cir. 2007).

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/05/2009
• Published 10/05/2009

Judges

Court

• United States Sixth Circuit

Counsel