Alabama’s Department of Corrections is scheduled to execute 40-year-old Torrey Twane McNabb this evening. But as of now, a stay on that execution remains in place.
Yesterday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the stay to allow for additional proceedings in McNabb’s lawsuit. He and other Alabama death row inmates are challenging the constitutionality of the state’s lethal injection protocol. Specifically, they argue the sedative midazolam can be ineffective, and might not render them unconscious before other drugs stop their lungs and heart.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office is now petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the execution to proceed. The state argues the U.S. Supreme Court already ruled in favor of the use of midazolam in 2015, and has already allowed four executions to proceed in the state using the current protocol.
McNabb was convicted of the 1997 shooting death of Montgomery police officer Anderson Gordon. Prosecutors say he shot Gordon multiple times when he arrived on the scene of a traffic accident McNabb caused while fleeing a bail bondsman.
