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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

Inmate's family sues Ohio lethal injection expert witness

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Dennis McGuire
Dennis McGuire
The state’s former expert witness on lethal injection should have known that a condemned inmate would suffer because of a never-used two-drug combo, the family of the inmate says in a lawsuit.

The lawsuit, expanded from an earlier filing, alleges that Dr Mark Dershwitz knew inmate Dennis McGuire would suffer during the January execution but helped create the state’s new lethal injection policy anyway. The new complaint filed in federal court earlier this month says Dershwitz also provided medical and scientific advice to the state prisons agency.

Even though he knew the risks of the two-drug method, “Dershwitz continued to bill for services and earn compensation from the State of Ohio to provide advice, expertise, assistance, counsel, and expert witness services to assist in the creation of Ohio’s Execution Protocol,” the lawsuit said.

Dershwitz, a University of Massachusetts anesthesiologist and pharmacologist, announced in June he would no longer act as an expert witness for states defending their lethal injection methods.

Dershwitz said Ohio had jeopardized his standing with the American Board of Anesthesiology in a news release it issued about the 16 January execution of McGuire because it implied he consulted on the execution method, which is prohibited by the national board.

The family also added drug distributor McKesson Corp to the lawsuit, saying the company distributed the midazolam and hydromorphone used to put McGuire to death. The family previously sued Hospira Inc, which makes the drugs.


Source: The Guardian, December 16, 2014
Location: Ohio, USA
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