A lawsuit contending that state corrections officials failed to properly publicize as required by law its switch to a new lethal injection drug is before the Mississippi Supreme Court.
The case is among dozens on the court's current docket. The court will not hear oral arguments.
The lawsuit by 2 anti-death penalty organizations was filed last year on behalf of 3 inmates. 2 of the 3 have been executed.
Mississippians Educating for Smart Justice and Mississippi Cure Inc. sued the state, hoping to stop the executions because the state switched to a different lethal injection drug. They said corrections officials failed to properly publicize the change as required by the Administrative Procedures Act.
The 2003 law requires state agencies to notify the public of proposed rule and regulation changes. The law gives citizens the right to offer opinions on proposed changes to rules and regulations, ask for hearings and request official opinions from state agencies.
In April of 2011, Hinds County Circuit Judge Bill Gowan rejected the challenge. The Supreme Court then denied a request to stop the scheduled executions while an appeal was pending.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of inmates Benny Joe Stevens, Rodney Gray and Robert Simon Jr. Stevens was executed May 10. 2011; Gray was executed May 17, 2011. Simon has appeals pending in federal court.
The Mississippi Department of Correction said in April of 2011 that it would switch to a different drug, pentobarbital, for the state's next execution because of a nationwide shortage of one drug it has used in the past.
Mississippi has used a 3-drug mixture for its lethal injections for many years. Last year, 1 of the drugs Mississippi had used in the process, sodium thiopental, became unavailable when its European supplier bowed to pressure from death penalty opponents and stopped making it. No other vendor could be found, so the drug was replaced by pentobarbital.
Source: Associated Press, May 19, 2012
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