Supreme Court in April upheld execution method killer is contesting
By ROSANNA RUIZ
The Houston Chronicle
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Attorney General’s office filed its response to appeals that led to this week’s last-minute stay of execution of a convicted capital murderer, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court already upheld the lethal injection process.
The attorney general also said 11th-hour legal filings to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, like the one that halted Tuesday’s execution of Derrick Juan Sonnier, should be discouraged.
A Texas Defender Service lawyer filed appeals hours before Sonnier was to be put to death, arguing that death by lethal injection violates Eight Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The Court of Criminal Appeals has not yet ruled in two cases making similar claims. Sonnier’s lawyers also argued that Texas prison officials had made changes to its execution protocol that have not been reviewed by any court.
The Court of Criminal Appeals halted Sonnier’s execution about two hours before he was to enter Texas’ death chamber. He would have been the state’s first inmate executed since the Supreme Court upheld the lethal injection process in a Kentucky case in April.
Sonnier was condemned for the 1991 rape and stabbing death of Melody Flowers, 27, and her son Patrick, 2.
The Eighth Amendment argument Sonnier raised was “fully disposed” of by the Supreme Court when it upheld the three-drug procedure used in Kentucky, the Attorney General’s Office argued in its response.
The only issue left is whether Texas’ execution protocol mirrors Kentucky’s, the attorney general argues. A chart included in the filing indicates similar doses of the lethal drugs are administered in both states.
David Dow, Sonnier’s appellate attorney, said Friday that the issue is not that clear-cut.
“It’s a misstatement that Kentucky’s protocol is exactly like Texas’,” said Dow, of the Texas Defender Service.
A spokeswoman for the AG’s office declined comment.
Sonnier was returned to death row in Livingston soon after he received word of the court’s stay.
Copyright 2008 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company