Published: March 06, 2006 11:49 pm         

Judge puts upcoming executions on hold

Three federal death row inmates who contend in a lawsuit that lethal injections are painful have been granted a stay of execution, court records show.

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ordered a preliminary injunction Feb. 24, barring the Bureau of Prisons from executing James H. Roane Jr., Richard Tipton and Cory Johnson.

The three co-defendants had been scheduled to die in May at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, home to the nation’s federal death row. The trio were sentenced to die after being convicted in a string of drug-related murders in Richmond, Va.

“Any news like this is good,” said Stephen Northup, an attorney who represents Tipton. But “it’s really just temporary relief.”

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons confirmed the delay Monday, and declined further comment.

This case marks at least the sixth since January in which executions have been delayed after inmates have raised legal challenges about the lethal injection process, according to information on Death Penalty Information Center’s Web site.

At least six other men, included one from Indiana, have been executed in the same time period.

The injunction in the federal death case is indefinite, until further order of the court. In her ruling, Huvelle also stayed the three men’s federal lawsuit on the constitutionality of lethal injections, pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in a Florida case.

In that case, death row inmate Clarence Edward Hill is suing the state of Florida, alleging that lethal injection would violate his constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

In a court document, Hill’s attorney claims that a succession of the three chemicals commonly used in used in lethal injection — sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride — could inflict pain “contrary to the contemporary standards of decency.”

The document cites a study published last year in a British medical journal. In the study, which appeared in The Lancet, the authors found that toxicology reports of 49 executed inmates showed 43 had post-mortem concentrations of thiopental lower than required in surgery. In addition, 21 of the 49 inmates had concentrations consistent with awareness, according to the study.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Florida case, to determine whether Hill’s civil suit falls within federal appeals, as lower courts have ruled, or is a legitimate challenge to the conditions of a condemned inmate’s death sentence.

Separately, attorneys for Roane, Tipton and Johnson also are alleging in a federal lawsuit that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. They filed the suit in December in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The defendants in the case are U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales, DEA Administrator Karen Tandy, Bureau of Prisons Director Harley Lappin, Bureau Medical Director Newton E. Kendig II, penitentiary Warden Mark Bezy, and penitentiary Clinical Director Dr. Thomas Webster. The list of defendants also includes “John Does I-V,” a reference to the unknown people charged with carrying out the execution.

In the complaint, attorneys for the three death row inmates claim while sodium pentothal “supposedly will render the plaintiffs insensible to the pain of their deaths, it in fact can and will merely cast a ‘chemical veil’ over this excruciating pain, leaving plaintiffs conscious but trapped in a paralyzed body wracked with the pain of suffocation and heart attack.

“At the same time, this ‘cocktail’ will make it impossible for those observing the execution – including witnesses to it … to recognize and prevent the gratuitous pain and suffering being inflicted upon the plaintiffs.”

While the attorneys await the outcome of the Florida case, they have filed paperwork asking President Bush to grant clemency to their clients, Northup said.

Karin Grunden can be reached at (812) 231-4257 or karin.grunden@tribstar.com.

A look at the crimes

--Richard Tipton, 35, Cory Johnson, 37, and James H. Roane Jr., 40, were gang leaders in a crack-cocaine ring in Richmond, Va.

--The three were tied to nine slayings of suspected informants, competitors and underlings. One man was stabbed 84 times for mishandling a drug transaction, according to a U.S. Court of Appeals brief. Three other people were critically injured during the series of killings, which happened over a month in early 1992, court records show.

--Tipton, Johnson and Roane were sentenced under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, which includes federal execution as a sentence. The three have exhausted all appeals.