Montgomery, AL – A lawyer for death-row inmate Tommy Arthur says she wants a chance to argue in court that the procedure the state plans to use this month to execute her client may be unconstitutional.
An April 2011 change in Alabama's execution procedure is at issue in the case.
Arthur's lawyer, Suhana Han, argued in federal appeals court this week that the change in procedure might result in an inmate suffering cruel and unusual punishment, and should have been significant enough to trigger an appeals process.
The change involved a switch in the first of three drugs administered during lethal injections. The state switched to the drug pentobarbital in 2011, when supplies for sodium thiopental ran low.
Arthur is scheduled to die March 29.
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