The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that just because an inmate feels like he’s being suffocated after a lethal injection, that doesn’t amount to cruel and unusual punishment.
“Rather than debating how much pain we are willing to allow people being executed to endure, we should be debating whether the death penalty truly serves the justice system and people of our state,” Hannah Kubbins, program director of Ohioans to Stop Executions, said in an email. “Governor DeWine said he wouldn’t use the midazolam execution method, and the 6th Circuit’s opinion shouldn’t change that. The facts and science about the protocol have not changed.”
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