Citing a pending U.S. Supreme Court challenge to lethal injection, the Arizona Supreme Court on Oct. 11 blocked the scheduled execution of Arizona death row inmate Jeffrey Landrigan.
The Arizona court said its order will remain in effect until further notice.
On Sept. 25, an execution warrant was issued for Landrigan, who was set to die in an execution chamber at the state prison in Florence on Nov. 1. Landrigan would have become the second man to be executed in Arizona this year.
In 1989 he strangled and stabbed a male lover in Phoenix after escaping from an Oklahoma prison where he was serving sentences for a 1982 murder and a 1986 prison stabbing.
In May, the state executed Robert Comer for a 1987 murder and rape spree near Apache Lake. In 2000, the California native moved to fire his federal appeals attorneys in an effort to proceed with his execution.
Legal filings by defense attorneys for Landrigan argue that Arizona’s procedures for lethal injection violate an inmate’s rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
The lack of clear standards by the Arizona Department of Corrections increases the likelihood the prisoner will not be completely anesthetized when a fatal dose of potassium chloride is administered, according to an Oct. 4 filing on Landrigan’s behalf.
Execution protocol by the state also does not ensure the medical proficiency of personnel entrusted to execute Landrigan, according to the filing.
Kent Cattani, chief of capital litigation for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, wrote the appeal against the punishment was untimely and that previous lethal injection executions in Arizona have produced “no credible evidence” the methods constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
Landrigan’s right to choose lethal gas inhalation or lethal injection negated his right to challenge lethal injection procedures.
In September, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to Kentucky lethal injection procedures leveled by two death row inmates, Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr.
The Arizona Supreme Court case number for Landrigan is CR-90-0323-AP.