on Tuesday released its proposed revisions to the lethal injection
procedures, a first step toward resuming executions in the state after
a four-year halt.
The proposals kick off a new 15-day period for
public comment, after which the revised procedures can be adopted and
submitted for what is expected to be months of judicial review in state
and federal courts to assess the execution method’s conformance with
state law and the Constitution.
Executions have been on hold since early 2006, when concerns about the state’s three-drug method prompted U.S. District Judge
Gov.
special panel to rewrite the lethal injection procedures in 2007, but
the revisions were decided behind closed doors and later ruled illegal
by a
Corrections officials last year sought the public’s
input in May and June, receiving more than 8,000 comments by letter,
e-mail and at a public hearing in
Analysis of those suggestions resulted in a few minor changes to the
protocols, mostly dealing with the arrangements for witnesses to
executions and access to the condemned inmate by chaplains and
spiritual advisers. As under the previous practices, an inmate
sentenced to death can choose whether to be executed by lethal gas or
lethal injection.
Once the lethal injection protocols are formally adopted by the corrections department, both the
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