By: Gary Grado | Arizona Capitol Times
The U.S. Supreme Court today approved the use of the sedative midazolam in executions, a ruling that permits Arizona to circumvent a shortage of other drugs used in lethal injections.
The high court found that midazolam does not violate the guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment, rejecting claims of condemned Oklahoma prisoners it doesn’t provide a deep enough sedation to prevent a prisoner from feeling the intolerable pain inflicted by the rest of the drugs used in a common three-drug method of lethal injection. The first drug is for sedation, the second to paralyze, and the third stops the heart.
The state hasn’t executed anyone since July 23, 2014, but a law
