High court halts execution over appeal of drug lawsuit

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- For the second time in as many days, the same lawsuit spared a condemned Texas inmate from the death chamber.

The U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution Wednesday of Kevin Lee Zimmerman, who was part of a lawsuit that challenged one of the drugs used to carry out the death penalty.

Eighteen hours earlier, the lawsuit had allowed Billy Frank Vickers to avoid the death chamber Tuesday.

Rejection of the lawsuit Wednesday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for Zimmerman's execution -- until the Supreme Court order was issued.

Zimmerman's reprieve came about 20 minutes before he could have been put to death for a fatal stabbing and robbery at a Beaumont motel in 1987.

In a brief order, Justice Antonin Scalia stopped the punishment pending an additional order from him or the court. The lawsuit was filed on Zimmerman's behalf, despite his opposition.

"I'm disappointed," Zimmerman told Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons. "I was ready to go. The stay only means 18 more months of this crap."

Citing the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment, the lawsuit sought to stop use of pancuronium bromide -- a drug that paralyzes muscles.

Texas, the first state to execute condemned inmates by injection, uses a combination of three drugs: pancuronium bromide, the barbiturate sodium thiopental and potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest.

Vickers' execution was postponed when the 5th Circuit failed to rule by midnight, and the death warrant expired. After the appeals court rejected the case Wednesday, it was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The lawsuit was patterned after a Tennessee death row inmate's suit, now on appeal, that cites an American Veterinary Medical Association condemnation of the drug.

Zimmerman's execution was the last scheduled for this year, when 24 inmates were executed. The total is the highest in the nation and about average for the most active death penalty state.