By C1 Staff
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A death-row inmate in Alabama wants a federal court to declare the state’s new execution protocol cruel and unusual punishment.
The Montgomery Advertiser reports that Christopher Lee Price was sentenced to death for the brutal 1991 murder of Bill Lynn, a Tuscaloosa minister.
He attacked Lynn with a sword and dagger, leaving him with 38 wounds and leaving him to die slowly.
Price argues that the drug protocol adopted by the Alabama Department of Corrections last month would cause excruciating pain and violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.
The Alabama General’s Office had no comment on the lawsuit Thursday.
The state recently switched from its long-used sodium thiopental as its anesthetic in executions after its manufacturer stopped making it. They switched to pentobarbital in 2011.
On September 10, filings with the Alabama Supreme Court revealed that the condemned would be given midazolam hydrochloride for sedation, rocuronium bromide for paralysis and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Price’s attorneys argue that midazolam will not sedate Price, and the use of rocuronium bromide will paralyze him while he experiences the pain of the potassium chloride, effectively masking the reaction to the heart-stopping drug.
Controversial executions in Ohio and Arizona both used midazolam.