Death row inmate Christopher Sepulvado, a convicted child killer, wants more information about how the state intends to execute him.
So does The Lens.
The Lens started investigating Louisiana’s capital punishment plans after the state said earlier this year it was abandoning a three-drug cocktail used previously in lethal injections and turning to a one-drug protocol for Sepulvado’s execution.
The state’s responses to inquiries by The Lens and by Sepulvado’s attorneys invite varying interpretations. It is possible to conclude, for example, that the Louisiana Department of Safety and Corrections has no drugs on hand for use in executions or that it has the drug it wants to use — pentobarbital — but no record establishing its expiration date.
Defense attorneys were told the records regarding the state’s current inventory of execution supplies are not available to the public or that their release would endanger public safety. The Lens was told records relating to the current inventory of the drug did not exist.
Efforts to get the state to clarify its responses have been unavailing.
A question of efficacy
In February, as Sepulvado appealed his pending execution, a federal judge called a hearing because of concerns raised by defense attorneys over lethal injection protocol. The state acknowledged its intention to use pentobarbtal, but did not disclose the expiration date on the state’s supply.
In fulfillment of their duty to explore every possible grounds for stalling or aborting an execution, defense attorneys argued that if Louisiana’s supply has outlasted its relatively brief shelf life, its use may make an execution painful or prolonged, in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s ban on punishments that are “cruel and unusual.” Additionally, they said lack of notice violates due process.
“It is imperative that the Louisiana DOC [Department of Corrections] be forthright … about where it got the pentobarbital it plans to use and whether it is an FDA-approved product,” said Michael Rubenstein, a lawyer who filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of both Sepulvado and another death row inmate.
“Louisiana should not be permitted to move forward with any execution until it provides complete information. If we are going to have the death penalty, then we need to know all the facts before an execution is carried out,” Rubenstein said.
Source: The Lens, April 30, 2013