By Rebecca Boone
The Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho man convicted of killing a woman and mutilating her body is set to be executed Tuesday, marking the first time witnesses can watch the whole lethal injection process in the state after a challenge by media organizations.
Richard Albert Leavitt, who was convicted in a 1985 murder, is scheduled to be put to death Tuesday morning.
Death row inmates in Idaho and nationwide have challenged lethal injection procedures in part by claiming that the insertion of the IVs can be easily botched, resulting in excruciating pain or other problems. But until now, witnesses in Idaho and several other states were barred from watching that first part of the procedure.
The state made the policy change under order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after The Associated Press and 16 other news organizations sued, contending Idaho’s former policy preventing witnesses from viewing the first half of each execution violated the public’s First Amendment rights.
Leavitt has maintained his innocence. He was arrested after authorities discovered Elg’s body in her bedroom several days after she’d been killed. Prosecutors said Leavitt stabbed her repeatedly with exceptional force, and then cut out her sexual organs.
Leavitt would be the first person in the state to be put to death using a single, lethal dose of the surgical sedative pentobarbital. The state’s two previous lethal injection executions relied on toxic doses of three separate drugs.
Witnesses will be allowed to watch as Leavitt is escorted into the death chamber, strapped down, connected to equipment to monitor his consciousness level and inserted with IVs.
On Sunday, Leavitt’s attorneys filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a stay of execution and for the high court to consider the case. The Supreme Court denied both requests Monday.