Michael Worthington is scheduled to be executed on August 6 for the rape and murder of a woman. The execution of a Mexican Mafia hit man in Texas, also scheduled for the same day, has been delayed.
Michael Worthington, who is scheduled to die in Missouri on Wednesday, Aug. 6, for raping and murdering a woman, could become the country's first man to be executed since Joseph Wood's prolonged and problematic lethal injection in Arizona last month.
AP Photo/Missouri Department of Corrections, File
Worthington, 43, could become the seventh person to be executed in Missouri this year and the first to die by lethal injection since Arizona inmate, Joseph Wood, reportedly "gasped for air" hundreds of times during his nearly two-hour long execution that required 15 doses of lethal drugs.
In 1995, Worthington brutally raped his Lake St. Louis neighbor, Melinda Griffin, after breaking into her condominium. He robbed her after beating and strangling her to death.
On July 30, Worthington's attorneys filed a motion for stay of execution with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, stating that his execution should be delayed because of ongoing litigation involving Worthington and 14 Missouri death row inmates. The inmates are pursuing federal litigation over the state's secrecy laws regarding lethal injection drugs. The court will hear their arguments on Sept. 9.
Worthington's appeal stated that Missouri's execution process using "an unregulated compounded drug, from an undisclosed supplier, from unknown
ingredients, and through unknown processes" is likely to cause "substantial risk of harm and mental anguish" as well as "severe and unacceptable levels of pain and suffering," in violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. His lawyers cited this year's problematic lethal injections in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arizona.
However, state officials argued against a stay saying these states used different execution chemicals, protocols and personnel than Missouri, the Kansas City Star reported. Missouri has a one-drug execution protocol using pentobarbital.
On Friday, the 8th Circuit Court denied Worthington's appeal to stay his execution. His appeal was also denied by the Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday. In his dissent, 8th Circuit Court Judge Kermit Bye, who supported the stay of execution, wrote: "Missouri's tactics have frustrated legitimate efforts to evaluate whether the State's protocols comply with constitutional requirements." He cited concerns about the state's refusal to provide information about the source and quality of its drugs, and its constantly changing protocol.
On July 31, Worthington's lawyers filed a motion for stay of execution with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Arizona's prolonged execution of Joseph Wood in July has led to a renewed debate on the secrecy laws surrounding states' lethal injection protocols and the drugs used to kill inmates.
AP Photo/Arizona Department of Corrections, File
In light of Wood's death, Arizona has planned to review its execution process. Wood's two-hour lethal injection, which his lawyers called "the most prolonged execution in recent memory," also drew nationwide attention after conflicting reports of whether he gasped over 600 times during the process.
Missouri's attorney general, Chris Koster, recently expressed his concerns about the "creeping secrecy" surrounding executions. The state executed John Middleton on July 16, after the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, refused to stay his execution on his claim of innocence and doubts over his mental health.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told the Associated Press that she could not predict how the court would rule on Worthington's stay appeal in light of Arizona's execution.
"Your crystal ball is as good as mine," she said in an interview with The Associated Press.
from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://ift.tt/UOA4c1
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