Supreme Court unanimously rules against death row inmates and avoids lethal injection question
In an unanimous opinion written by Justice Debra Stephens, the Supreme Court has ruled against three death row inmates who sought to have the state's lethal injection protocol declared unconstitutional. The court declined to squarely address the constitutionality of the lethal injection procedure. From the opinion:
This case began mainly as a constitutional challenge by three death row inmates . . . to Washington’s three-drug lethal injection protocol for carrying out a sentence of death. The Thurston County Superior Court dismissed some claims on summary judgment and held a five-day bench trial in May 2009 to consider whether the three-drug protocol violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment” or Washington’s constitutional ban on “cruel punishment” in article I, section 14. The trial court upheld the lethal injection protocol, and this appeal followed.
Before this court heard oral argument, however, the Washington Department of Corrections (Department) abandoned the three-drug method of execution and adopted a new, one-drug protocol, effective March 8, 2010. The Department now moves to dismiss the Appellants’ constitutional challenge as moot, leaving for review only claims concerning the legislative delegation of authority to the Department to develop a lethal injection protocol, and the Department’s handling of the lethal injection substances under state and federal law governing controlled substances. In addition, the Department cross-appeals the trial court’s refusal to dismiss this case as time barred.
For the reasons that follow we affirm the trial court, both as to the statute of limitations question and its dismissal of the claims concerning legislative delegation and the state and federal controlled substances acts. With respect to the Appellants’ constitutional challenge and related claims, we grant the Department’s motion to dismiss these claims as moot.
The Supreme Court has lifted its stay of execution entered in Cal Coburn Brown's case, which was entered the day before he was scheduled to be executed last year. We expect the Attorney General's Office will announce its plan to seek a rescheduling of the execution shortly.
The case is Brown, Gentry and Stenson v. Vail, No. 83474-1.
