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Lawyers seek stay in Georgia execution case
W deyoung
Defense lawyers are seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the planned execution of Andrew DeYoung, who is scheduled to die on Wednesday for the 1993 slayings of his parents and 15-year-old sister. - photo by Georgia Department of Corrections

  ATLANTA — Lawyers seeking to halt the Wednesday execution of a Georgia prisoner told a federal judge on Tuesday that a new sedative in the state's three-drug combination caused another inmate to suffer as he was put to death last month.
    Prosecutors countered that executions need not be free of all pain and that the defense failed to show that Roy Blankenship — who witnesses say grimaced and jerked — suffered excessively before he died on June 23.
    "Some pain is allowed during an execution," Assistant Attorney General Sabrina Graham said at a federal court hearing. "Is it looking at your arm and grimacing, is that unnecessary pain and suffering? It is not."
    Defense lawyers are seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the planned execution of Andrew DeYoung, who is scheduled to die on Wednesday for the 1993 slayings of his parents and 15-year-old sister.
    DeYoung's lawyer argues the state's use of pentobarbital in its three-drug mixture is unconstitutional and violates the ban against cruel and unusual punishment.
    Amid questions surrounding the state's lethal injection procedure, a Fulton County judge has ordered that DeYoung's execution be videotaped and submitted to the court under seal. A spokeswoman for the state attorney general said the office was reviewing the order to decide how to proceed.
    The state switched to pentobarbital earlier this year after federal regulators took the state's supply of sodium thiopental amid questions about how it was obtained amid a nationwide shortage.
    Dr. David Waisel, a Harvard University medical professor and anesthesiologist, testified on Tuesday that pentobarbital is largely untested as a stand-alone sedative in humans. The drug is used most commonly to euthanize animals.
    Waisel said he reviewed accounts from those who witnessed Blankenship's June 23 executions, including a report by The Associated Press, and said he concluded Blankenship had suffered.
    "It is my opinion that during this process Mr. Blankenship exhibited needless pain and suffering," said Waisel, who had previously expressed concerns about the use of pentobarbital.
    A key focus of Tuesday's hearing was the account of AP reporter Greg Bluestein, who reported Blankenship jerked his head several times during the procedure, looked at the injection sites in his arms and muttered after the pentobarbital was injected into his veins.
     Statesboro Herald Assistant Editor Eddie Ledbetter, who was a media witness at Blankenship’s execution, also was subpoenaed late Monday evening to appear at Wednesday’s hearing, but then received a text and phone call from an attorney representing DeYoung telling him he would not need to attend.
    Ledbetter sent an affidavit to both attorneys for DeYoung and the Georgia Attorney General’s Office swearing that his published account of the execution in the Herald on June 26 and in the online edition was accurate and true. The affidavit and initialed hardcopies of the article were scheduled to be entered as “Exhibit A” at the hearing.  
    Death penalty critics said Blankenship's unusual movements were proof that Georgia shouldn't have used pentobarbital to sedate him before injecting pancuronium bromide to paralyze him and then potassium chloride to stop his heart. State prosecutors, meanwhile, raised questions about the timeline cited in the AP story and argued Blankenship's movements occurred before the sedative took hold.
    In addition, state prosecutors argued adequate safeguards are in place to ensure inmates do not suffer needlessly, including a consciousness check before the second and third drugs are administered. The consciousness check was used for the first time in Blankenship's execution.
    Bluestein was subpoenaed Monday by DeYoung's lawyers. He was later released from the subpoena after the AP attested to the accuracy of its report.
    On Tuesday, DeYoung's lawyer Mark Olive argued pentobarbital also caused problems in executions this year in Alabama and Ohio.
    Matt Schulz, a federal public defender in Alabama who witnessed the June 16 execution of Eddie Duvall Powell, testified at the court hearing in Atlanta.
    Schulz said Powell, after appearing to relax as his execution began, abruptly tried to sit up, pushed against the restraints, and clenched his jaw. The behavior lasted about one minute, Schulz said.
    Olive said the defense had raised enough questions to justify a restraining order to explore the issue in more depth.
    "There is no need for speed at this point," Olive said.
    With DeYoung's execution set for Wednesday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones said he would rule soon.
    DeYoung would become the second person in Georgia to be executed with pentobarbital.
    Amid a national shortage of sodium thiopental, states have been turning to pentobarbital to carry out executions.
    It has now been used this year to put at least 18 inmates to death in eight states.

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