Miss. inmates' lethal injection lawsuit dismissed

JACKSON (AP) July 16, 2008 10:16 am

— A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday filed by four death row inmates who claim Mississippi’s method of lethal injection is unconstitutional because it could cause pain.
Attorney General Jim Hood said the ruling clears the way for one of the condemned prisoners, Dale Leo Bishop, to be executed July 23. Bishop was one of four inmates who filed the lawsuit in October 2007. His attorneys filed an urgent motion Monday asking for an injunction because of the upcoming execution.
U.S. District Judge W. Allen Pepper dismissed the lawsuit in a 15-page ruling, saying the inmates were barred by a statute of limitations.
Bishop’s attorneys said they will appeal Tuesday’s ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. They claim the state has withheld information about the way it conducts lethal injections.
“It is important to understand that Judge Pepper did not rule that the Mississippi procedure for lethal injections met constitutional standards,” said Jim Craig, an attorney for the inmates. “The ruling was strictly on procedural grounds.”
The U.S. Supreme Court and Mississippi’s highest court had already denied Bishop’s appeals of his 2000 conviction and death sentence.
“We anticipate a flurry of last minute desperate court filings by the anti-death penalty attorneys,” Hood said. “We believe that the 5th Circuit and the United States Supreme Court will allow this execution to occur on July 23.”