Four on death row sue over lethal injection method

ST. LOUIS -- Four convicted killers on Missouri's death row claim in a federal lawsuit that the state's method for putting inmates to death is unconstitutionally cruel.

The suit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, by four men who could face death relatively soon. The state has asked the Missouri Supreme Court to set execution dates for all four -- Reginald Clemons, Richard Clay, Jeffrey Ferguson and Roderick Nunley.

The lawsuit contends Missouri's use of a three-drug method could result in a painful death if the anesthesia doesn't take effect or wears off.

Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Hauswirth said, "We are confident that in the end, the courts will determine that our lethal injection process is constitutional."

Under Missouri's method, the inmate is first injected with an anesthetic to render him unconscious. The second drug is pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the inmate.

The third drug, potassium chloride, stops the heart. But the lawsuit said that if the inmate is not sufficiently under anesthesia when he receives the pancuronium, he will die a slow, terrifying and painful death, yet be paralyzed and unable to express his suffering.

"The implementation of the death penalty in Missouri is inhumane," said Jill O'Toole, an attorney representing Clemons. "The state refuses to take simple and inexpensive steps to ensure that inmates are not gratuitously subjected to agonizing deaths, and in choosing not to do so, clearly violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment."

The state's execution process -- from implementation of the first drug to the time the inmate is pronounced dead -- usually takes only a few minutes. Inmates typically cough or twitch briefly in the seconds after the first dose, then shut their eyes, never to wake up.

One exception occurred in May 1995, when the execution of Emmitt Foster took 29 minutes. Seven minutes after the process began, witnesses could still see Foster breathing. One said he was "gasping, slightly convulsing."

Corrections Department officials closed blinds to the viewing area. The blinds remained closed, even as Foster was declared dead.

Corrections officials said Foster was unconscious soon after the process began and did not suffer. The coroner who pronounced Foster dead said a leather strap was too tight around the prisoner's arm, slowing the flow of the deadly drugs.

The lawsuit asks the court to prohibit the use of pancuronium during executions and to require that the inmate's level of consciousness be continuously monitored by a board certified anesthesiologist.