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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Ind. Decisions - Judge Young allows 2 to join federal lawsuit challenging Indiana's lethal-injection procedures
Updating this ILB entry from March 31st, Jon Murray of the Indianapolis Star writes this afternoon that federal Judge Richard L. Young:
this week granted requests by two Death Row inmates to join a lawsuit challenging Indiana's lethal-injection procedures.A third inmate, Norman Timberlake, filed the suit in December in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis on the grounds that Indiana's method constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. It suggests previous executed inmates have not received adequate anesthesia.
Last month, David Leon Woods and Michael Lambert asked Judge Richard L. Young to allow them to join the case as plaintiffs. Young granted their request Monday and also denied Timberlake's earlier motion for a preliminary injunction as well the attorney general's request for a judgment based on written pleadings in the case.
Timberlake had been scheduled to be put to death in January, but the Indiana Supreme Court stayed his execution until the U.S. Supreme Court decides a pending case involving the execution of the mentally ill. That makes immediate rulings unnecessary, Young wrote.
Woods is facing execution May 4 at Indiana State Prison and will have clemency hearings later this month at the prison in Michigan City and in Indianapolis. His clemency petition asks Gov. Mitch Daniels to commute his sentence because he was poorly represented by lawyers and was abused as a child.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 11, 2007 02:30 PM
Posted to Ind Fed D.Ct. Decisions