Lawyers Cite Brain Damage as Execution Nears

"With California's first execution in three years scheduled for just after midnight on Wednesday, lawyers for the condemned killer are challenging the method and arguing that he is brain damaged ...

"In a separate legal battle, Mr. Beardslee's lawyers have asked the United States Supreme Court to declare his execution by lethal injection to be cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of his right to free speech. They argue one of the drugs he is to receive, a paralyzing agent, will make it impossible for him to cry out if in pain. Opponents of the death penalty, in a brief in Mr. Beardslee's case, say the drug also violates the First Amendment rights of witnesses to the execution by concealing any 'physical or verbal manifestations' of his pain."

Full text: New York Times

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