Missouri carries out its 8th execution this year; four SCOTUS justices would have granted stay
Missouri executed convicted double murderer Earl Ringo Jr. early Wednesday, its eighth execution this year.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued four orders refusing to stay the execution, though one of the orders (PDF) said Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan could have granted the stay, report BuzzFeed and St. Louis Public Radio. The Associated Press and Reuters also have stories.
In their stay requests, Ringo’s lawyers had cited information uncovered by St. Louis Public Radio. The radio station had reported last week that Missouri was using the controversial sedative midazolam despite assurances it was not part of the execution cocktail. The state says the drug is used before the execution process begins.
Inmates recently executed in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona appeared to gasp for air when midazolam was used. A review of the Oklahoma execution concluded that problems were caused by a poorly placed IV line.
Three dissenting judges on the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said they would have stayed the execution because of the radio station’s revelations.
“The unusually large doses of midazolam Missouri has intravenously injected into inmates in its last four executions–just minutes prior to the time when the death warrants become effective–is alarming with respect to the constitutional prohibition against executing a prisoner in a state of incompetency,” the dissent said.
The dissent also agreed with the contention that use of the drug minutes before the execution process begins “amounts to a de facto use of the drug as part of its actual execution protocol.”
Ringo and an accomplice were accused of killing two people in a restaurant robbery in 1988. The accomplice pleaded guilty and testified against Ringo.
