Healthcare & Pharmaceutics

U.S. Considers Using Drug Law to Prosecute Blackwater Guards

Federal prosecutors are reportedly readying indictments for the Blackwater Worldwide guards who are alleged to have participated in the 2007 shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians. The shootings left 17 dead and strained U.S.-Iraq relations. Now prosecutors are considering using an anti-drug law to prosecute those involved, the Associated Press reports.…

Dec 4, 2008 11:34 PM CST

Appeals Court Reviews Va. Lethal Injections, Considers ‘Excruciating Death’

A federal appeals court considered yesterday whether Virginia’s method of lethal injection is constitutional. The oral arguments before the Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were the first to be held at the appellate level since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s three-drug lethal injection cocktail in April,…

May 15, 2008 3:55 PM CDT

Lynd Execution the First Since Lethal Injection Ruling

William Earl Lynd was put to death in Georgia last night, the first execution since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s widely used lethal injection procedure. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a last-minute request for a stay last night, the Washington Post reports. Justice John Paul Stevens did not…

May 7, 2008 1:00 PM CDT

Death Penalty Opponents See Litigation Roadmap in Lethal Injection Decision

Lawyers for death row inmates will try to show that the lethal injection procedures in their states are different from Kentucky’s after yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the state’s three-drug execution cocktail. The plurality opinion by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said states with execution methods “substantially similar”…

Apr 17, 2008 10:48 AM CDT

Riegel Will Affect Many—But Not All—Medical Device Suits

Lawyers representing plaintiffs in lawsuits alleging injuries for medical devices were bracing for waves of dismissal motions after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Wednesday. The court ruled in Riegel v. Medtronic that manufacturers of medical devices winning a rigorous pre-market approval from the Food and Drug Administration cannot be sued…

Feb 22, 2008 4:50 PM CST

Court Finds Pre-Emption in Rulings Trio on Medical Devices, Tobacco Regs, Arbitration

Updated: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in three federal pre-emption cases, favoring federal laws over state regulation and common-law lawsuits, SCOTUSblog reports. In Riegel v. Medtronic, the court held that pre-market approval of medical devices by the Food and Drug Administration bars injury lawsuits by those who say they…

Feb 20, 2008 3:57 PM CST

Justices’ Questions Could Shine Light on Lethal Injection Secrecy

Lawyers challenging lethal injection procedures have been hampered by states’ refusal to disclose details about the three-drug cocktail and the identity of executioners. But justices’ questions in oral arguments today before the U.S. Supreme Court could help bring to light the controversy over access to information, the Los Angeles Times…

Jan 7, 2008 4:03 PM CST

NYT and WaPo Oppose Ky. Lethal Injection Procedure

The New York Times and the Washington Post have published editorials opposing Kentucky’s method of lethal injections as the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the issue today. Both newspapers oppose capital punishment, but they say if it is allowed, it should be done humanely. Both say Kentucky’s three-drug cocktail does…

Jan 7, 2008 2:00 PM CST

No State Wants to Be First to Change Lethal Injection Method

All 36 states that use lethal injections for capital punishment administer a three-drug cocktail, despite the availability of a single drug likely to eliminate possible pain. Experts told the New York Times that no state wants to be the first to change its lethal injection procedure to adopt the method…

Jan 3, 2008 1:05 PM CST

Tinkering with Lethal Injection

An Eighth Amendment challenge comes before the high court

Jan 1, 2008 9:33 PM CST

25th Birthday for Lethal Injections

Exactly 25 years ago today, strapped to a gurney in a Texas death chamber, 40-year-old Charlie Brooks Jr. became the first person in the U.S. to be executed by lethal injection. Since then, the method has been adopted by many states throughout the country, which considered it a humane alternative…

Dec 7, 2007 11:20 PM CST

Scalia Deems Medical Device Liability ‘Extraordinary’

Updated: Several justices wondered in U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments yesterday whether juries in product liability cases should be allowed to consider the safety of a medical device that has been approved by the government. At issue in Riegel v. Medtronic is whether the tort claim is pre-empted by the…

Dec 5, 2007 12:48 PM CST

Integration Plan B Uses Income

More school districts are likely to consider income as a race neutral way to achieve school diversity in the wake of yesterday’s Supreme Court decision striking down two school integration plans. The 5-4 decision struck down programs used in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., area schools that used race as a…

Jun 29, 2007 5:48 PM CDT

Report: Lethal Injection Cocktail Flawed

A scientific analysis concludes drugs used in lethal injections can cause excruciating pain. The drug cocktail is supposed to make the inmate unconscious before his muscles are paralyzed and death is induced. But sometimes the inmate remains alert but paralyzed, so he is unable to cry out in pain. The…

Apr 24, 2007 3:39 PM CDT