Federal judge rejects Ohio's new lethal injection proces
Source: Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday declared Ohio's new lethal injection process unconstitutional and delayed three executions, including one scheduled next month.
The ruling by Magistrate Judge Michael Merz in Dayton followed a weeklong hearing over the three-drug method Ohio planned to use Feb. 15 on death row inmate Ronald Phillips.
The judge agreed with attorneys for Phillips and two other condemned killers that the first drug in the process, the sedative midazolam, couldn't pass a constitutional bar of causing "substantial risk of serious harm" previously set by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The judge also barred the state from using the second and third drugs in the protocol that paralyze inmates and stop their hearts.
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