The prison inmate due for execution in two weeks wants the state supreme court to block the execution because of the corrections department’s changes in proposed procedure.
Inmate Allen Nicklasson’s lawyer says the department has changed the execution protocol three times in 16 months, twice in the last two months. She calls the latest execution protocol “little more than experimentation,” and cites a Columbia University anesthesiologist who calls the planned execution process “fundamentally flawed.”
Nicklasson also has an appeal pending before the Missouri Supreme Court questioning the adequacy of the jury selection in his original trial.
The Attorney General is arguing against Nicklasson’s motions. Nicklasson is to be executed October 23.
Concerns about the use of Propofol remain although the Corrections Department announced today that it had returned some of its Propofol to the Louisiana company that supplied it, at the company’s request. The drug returned had been manufactured in Germany. The department says it has retained domestically-produced Propofol.
The action, however, does not satisfy the German company, which issued a statement this afternoon:
“We are very pleased Governor Nixon has recognized the risk that using Propofol in executions could lead to a shortage of this critical drug and has directed the Missouri Department of Corrections to return Fresenius Kabi’s Propofol so it is not used in any executions. However, we remain very concerned that use of Propofol – even domestically produced Propofol – in any executions would still lead to a severe shortage of Propofol in the United States. EU regulations do not make a distinction on the source of a drug as export sanctions or bans are considered. We continue to communicate with concerned stakeholders, U.S. state, federal and EU officials to ensure that Propofol is used only for its intended therapeutic purposes.”
Nicklasson’s execution is scheduled for the morning of October 23 at 12:01 a.m. Another inmate, Joseph Paul Franklin, is scheduled for execution November 20.
Missouri’s last execution was that of Martin Link on February 9, 2011. Nicklasson’s co-defendant, Dennis Skillicorn, was executed May 25, 2009. They are the only executions the state has carried out since 2005.
Executions are done at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
