A federal judge says the state of Alabama may not use a large dose of a sedative to execute five death row inmates.
U.S. District Judge William Keith Watkins issued an order Thursday denying the state's requests to dismiss lawsuits from five inmates who have challenged Alabama three-drug lethal injection procedure. The inmates were asked to present alternative means of execution and among other things suggested single doses of midazolam in amended complaints.
The Alabama Attorney General's office said in a motion that an alternative option to dismissing the lawsuits would be allowing the Department of Corrections to use midazolam to execute the inmates.
Judge Watkins denied the state's motion and ordered the inmates' lawsuits to be combined. A status conference for the combined case is scheduled for November fourth.
