LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by two Kentucky death row inmates who claimed lethal injection violates federal laws because a doctor doesn't obtain or administer the drugs.
U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell last week ruled that condemned inmates Thomas Clyde Bowling and Ralph S. Baze should have raised the issue in a lawsuit they brought in 2004 challenging the constitutionality of Kentucky's execution process.
"Because such claims could and should have been pursued in the prior state court litigation, the rule against splitting causes of actions applies, and plaintiffs are barred from pursuing them now," Caldwell wrote.
Baze and Bowling claimed that the federal Controlled Substances Act and the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act require a doctor to buy and prescribe sodium thiopental, a controlled substance used in lethal injections. Trained corrections staff administer drugs at executions in Kentucky.
The two inmates brought a constitutional attack on lethal injection in 2004. Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case and upheld the legality of the three-drug cocktail used by Kentucky. Caldwell ruled that the 2004 lawsuit was the time to bring the challenge.
American Medical Association guidelines bar doctors from taking part, directly or indirectly, in executions. Kentucky requires doctors to follow AMA ethical guidelines.
A federal judge dismissed a previous lawsuit by the men saying they needed to challenge the drugs through the prison grievance system. The Kentucky Department of Corrections rejected the grievance, saying nothing about the way the drugs are obtained or used violates federal law.
The U.S. Supreme Court turned away a similar challenge by inmates in 1985. The inmates argued that the Food and Drug Administration had not approved the drugs used in lethal injection for use on humans and that the agency was not enforcing a ban on the chemicals' use. The high court ruled the FDA has a right not to enforce regulations.
Bowling and Baze have received several stays of execution because of the court challenges.
Kentucky has 35 death-row inmates. The state has executed three men since reinstating the death penalty in 1976.
Published: Tue, Sep 28, 2010
