Atlanta, GA – A federal appeals court has revived an Alabama death row inmate's challenge of his state's new three-drug lethal injection protocol.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed a judge's decision that dismissed Thomas Arthur's appeal.
Arthur is set to be executed on March 29 for the 1982 murder-for-hire killing of Muscle Shoals businessman Troy Wicker. It is unclear whether Wednesday's decision will postpone his execution.
His attorneys claimed that Alabama's decision to use a new sedative called pentobarbital as part of its three-drug execution combination could be cruel and unusual punishment. State attorneys pointed to successful executions where pentobarbital was used.
The three-judge panel's decision said the judge who dismissed Arthur's appeal should have considered whether the swap constituted a ``significant change'' to Alabama's execution protocol.
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