Death row inmate Albert Greenwood Brown was given until noon Sunday to decide what method of lethal injection the state should use to end his life – a single drug or three-drug cocktail. He refused. Lawyers for Brown called such a choice “unconstitutionally medieval” and are seeking a stay. But prison officials are now set to proceed with California’s standard three-drug execution Wednesday, unless state or federal courts intervene. Executions in California were halted in 2006 in a ruling that excoriated its lethal injection practices. What questions remain about the three-drug cocktail? Why does California use this method instead of Sodium Pentothal alone, which is used in two other states and might eliminate the potentially painful second and third chemicals in the sequence?
Guest:
Ty Alper, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Associate Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, UC Berkeley School of Law