Federal Judge Blocks Ohio's Lethal Injection Protocol

Federal Judge Blocks Ohio's Lethal Injection Protocol Enlarge this image toggle caption Kiichiro Sato/AP Kiichiro Sato/AP A federal judge in Ohio has rejected the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol on the grounds that one of the drugs, the sedative midazolam, is not sufficiently humane in its effects. After five days of hearings, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Michael Merz blocked three upcoming executions in a decision issued Thursday morning, writing that the "use of midazolam as the first drug in Ohio's present three-drug protocol will create a 'substantial risk of serious harm' or an 'objectively intolerable risk of harm.' In court filings, the prisoners argued that the use of midazolam violated the Eighth Amendment and amounted to a reversion to a "more primitive, less humane execution method," citing past executions involving the drug in which prisoners appeared to struggle, regain consciousness, writhe and die slowly over the course of minutes or even hours. Merz wrote in Thursday's decision: "All the parties and witnesses in this case agree that use of a barbiturate, either as the first drug in a three-drug protocol or as the sole drug, would be preferable to the current Ohio protocol in that it would eliminate the side effects observed in midazolam-involved executions identified in the lay testimony and would also eliminate the risk of subjecting the inmate to severe pain."