Montgomery, AL – The state of Alabama has asked a federal appeals court to reconsider a decision to allow a death row inmate to challenge the lethal injection procedure.
Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw filed a petition Monday asking the entire 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to take another look at the appeal of Thomas Douglas Arthur.
A three-member panel of the appeals court last week overturned a judge's decision to stop Arthur's appeal. Arthur contends that the state's use of pentobarbital in lethal injections is cruel and unusual because of the risk it will not render and inmate unconscious before the deadly drugs are injected.
Arthur was sentenced to die for the 1982 murder-for-hire of Muscle Shoals businessman Troy Wicker. His execution is on hold pending the appeal review.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)