Judge studies lethal injection

A binder has details about past executions.

ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) — A 700-page binder on how the state executes death row inmates has been turned over to a judge who is considering whether the lethal injection procedure is legal.

The materials were given to Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge on Wednesday in the challenge filed by two murder suspects facing death penalty trials. It’s the first time the state has released such information.

The judge gave a copy to defense attorneys involved in the challenge but agreed with a state request to withhold the materials from attorneys handling other death penalty cases.

The binder has records on past executions and details on drug concoctions, supplies and materials used to carry out executions. The binder also lists qualifications and training of the 16-member execution team, but does not identify those individuals. The items remained sealed from the public.

Information has been released that’s never been available before, said Jeffrey Gamso, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing defendant Ruben Rivera.

Under Ohio’s current death penalty law, the state has executed 26 inmates by injection since 1999.

The judge plans a hearing next month with expert testimony on whether lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. The hearing is unusual in that Burge will rule on the constitutionality of the execution procedure before the trial.

Burge’s decision would apply only to the cases before him but will have broader implications down the road since his conclusion will likely be appealed regardless of how he rules.

Burge told state prisons Director Terry Collins and attorneys for the defendants awaiting separate murder trials in his court that his intention was to find out “whether this method is painful and if it is, how painful, and whether it is a protracted pain or momentary.”

Burge was a former defense attorney who handled capital punishment cases before being elected to the bench in 2006.

Burge said Thursday he agreed with prosecutors’ request to seal the documents from the public because they are evidence, and defense attorneys did not object.

He said he considers the documents public record but said requests to review them should go through the state.

“There is nothing that I can do to further the resolution of this matter by giving out the evidence,” Burge said in a phone interview. “I don’t have that authorization once the parties agree to it.”

The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction on Thursday denied a request by The Associated Press for the documents, citing Burge’s order sealing the report.

The state Supreme Court ruled in October that the judge has the authority to order the state to turn over documents related to the execution process. The state had argued that Burge does not have the authority to decide the constitutionality of death penalty law.

Gamso had said the high court’s decision meant the state could no longer hide the process it uses for putting inmates to death.

Rivera, charged in the 2004 shooting death of Manuel Garcia, has asked Burge to drop the death penalty aspects of his case on the grounds that the state’s lethal injection process amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.