Trial ordered to consider constitutionality of 
Ohio’s death penalty procedures

A federal court judge in Columbus has set an August 1, 2005 trial date to consider the merits of inmate Richard Cooey’s civil rights lawsuit attacking Ohio’s lethal injection protocol. 

Cooey’s lawsuit attacks several components of Ohio’s lethal injection protocol, including the use of a short-term anesthetic and a paralyzing drug, which could combine to leave an inmate conscious but paralyzed, trapping him in a chemical tomb that hides the excruciatingly painful effects of death by suffocation and heart attack. Veterinarians forbid using the same combination of drugs for euthanizing pets, in order to avoid inflicting pain on animals. At bare minimum, the OPD argues that we as a civilized society should not be executing human beings by using drugs veterinarians won’t use to put pets to sleep.

Three similar lawsuits were filed in 2004. Inmates Lewis Williams, John Roe, and Adremy Dennis were executed before the matter could be taken to trial.