Challenging the Constitutionality of ‘State Secret’ Law on Execution Drugs
Today, Georgia’s highest court will hear arguments regarding the constitutionality of the state law that shields the identity of suppliers and makers of drugs used in executions.
It’s also the latest legal challenge on behalf of Georgia death row inmate Warren Lee Hill, Jr.
Today’s arguments stem from last July 18.
That’s the day before Warren Lee Hill, Jr. was scheduled to die by lethal injection.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan said Hill had met the criteria to challenge, at the time, a new Georgia law, HB 122.
From the bench, Judge Tusan read, “the court today finds that the plaintiff has satisfied his burden with regard to each factor necessary for a grant of injunctive relief to main status quo. The court hereby grants the plaintiff’s motion and stays the execution of the plaintiff Mr. Warren Lee Hill.”
Hill’s defense objected to the lethal injection because of a Georgia law that protects the drug maker’s identity.
They cited it violated Hill’s Eighth Amendment.
Afterwards, the state filed a petition for immediate review challenging Judge Tusan’s ruling.
Now, in going before the state Supreme Court, WABE legal analyst Page Pate says the justices will have to consider if Tusan had the authority to stay the execution.
Simply put, it means “whether the Superior Court of Fulton County was correct when it issued a stay of execution based on Mr. Hill’s challenge to the constitutionality of the secrecy statue.”
Using execution drugs made from compounding pharmacies has been criticized.
Witnesses to the recent execution of Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire say he gasped and convulsed before dying.
Ohio uses a three-combination drug made by a compounding pharmacy.
Last week a federal judge temporarily blocked an Oklahoma compounding pharmacy from selling Pentobarbital to Missouri.
That pharmacy, the Apothecary Shoppe has now been linked to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
But Page Pate says neither could have any bearing on today’s proceedings.
“So while the Supreme Court may look to other courts to see what they’ve done, I do not think any court has reached the merits of this constitutional argument, so the Georgia Supreme Court will likely be the first.”
Today each side will get twenty minutes to argue.
The timeframe for the justices to issue an opinion could take up to six months.
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