Associated Press, April 16, by Mark Sherman
http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_8944471?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
Ty Alper, a death penalty opponent and associate director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law, said he expects challenges to lethal injections will continue in several states.
Columbus Dispatch, April 17, by Alan Johnson
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/04/17/LETHAL.ART_ART_04-17-08_A1_7V9V10B.html?sid=101
“States and the federal government have cloaked their lethal-injection procedures in secrecy,” said Ty Alper…. “But the discovery process has revealed alarming problems with the administration of lethal injection in many states, and nothing in today’s decision prevents the lower courts in those states from addressing those problems under the Eighth Amendment.”
Sacramento Bee, April 17, by Denny Walsh
http://www.sacbee.com/111/v-print/story/868661.html
“What’s now holding up executions in California is that case,” Alper said. “We won’t know what the state’s procedure might be until that case plays out.”
KPFA, April 20, by Mitch Jeserich
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=25900
“The controlling opinion in the ruling said that where there is a failure of the first drug … there is a constitutionally unacceptable risk that the second two drugs in the procedure will cause excruciating pain and suffering. Now a majority of the court found that the Kentucky plaintiffs … didn’t make their case that that risk was there. But the opinion certainly left the door open for death row inmates in other states to bring forth the kind of evidence that the court suggested would amount to a constitutional violation.”
Washington Post, April 23, Darryl Fears
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042202728_pf.html
Ty Alper said the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Kentucky case means nothing has changed: State officials will try to carry out executions and opponents will question their procedures. “It’s going to be like it was before,” Alper said. “In some states, prison officials are going to be pushing for round-the-clock injections—there are 40 or 50 in Texas. The open question will be whether those states can reach the standard that the court has set for lethal injection.”