Ky. Judge OKs Lethal Injections

A state judge Friday upheld the use of lethal injection in Kentucky, saying it was not cruel and unusual punishment.

Franklin Circuit Judge Roger Crittenden said the method of execution should be changed to rule out one painful step. Officials for the state said they planned to challenge that part of the ruling on appeal.

“The execution protocol adopted by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, with one exception, complies with the constitutional requirements against cruel and unusual punishment,” Crittenden wrote.

The case was brought by condemned prisoners Thomas Clyde Bowling and Ralph Baze. They argued that Kentucky’s process of administering the lethal cocktail violated the Kentucky and U.S. constitutions, which prohibited cruel and unusual punishment.

While upholding lethal injection, the judge said the state should not be allowed to administer the fatal drugs through an intravenous catheter stuck into the prisoner’s jugular vein, in the neck, if no suitable veins could be found in the arms or legs.

He said it was unconstitutionally cruel and should be removed from the process.

Corrections Department attorney Jeff Middendorf said the agency would ask a higher court to allow the intravenous insertion into the neck as a “backup” plan. Still, Middendorf said, the overall ruling validated the state’s lethal injection process.

“This is a win for the victims’ families today who have waited for years,” Middendorf said.

Public defender Ted Shouse said he was “encouraged by a lot of the language in the opinion.”

Lawyers were planning to be in court Tuesday morning to ask that Bowling’s stay of execution be maintained and extended to Baze pending an appeal, Shouse said.

Assistant Atty. Gen. David Smith said the ruling moved both men toward their executions. Prosecutors in the attorney general’s office would ask Gov. Ernie Fletcher for death warrants “at the appropriate time,” Smith said.

Bowling was scheduled to be executed in November for killing Edward and Tina Earley and shooting their 2-year-old in 1990. His execution was delayed pending the outcome of the case.

Baze was convicted of killing Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe during an attempted arrest in 1992.