By AP
Frankfort, KY – A judge in Frankfort has upheld Kentucky's method of administering lethal injections to condemned prisoners.
In his ruling Friday, Franklin County Circuit Judge Roger Crittenden found a flaw with one part of the process. He said that placing an intravenous catheter into a jugular vein creates an unnecessary infliction of pain or torture that violates an inmate's constitutional rights. That was the only part of the process that Crittenden struck down.
Crittenden said that Kentuckians have chosen the death penalty as a punishment for some offenses. he said the state's execution protocol, with that one execption, complies with the constitutional requirements against cruel and unusual punishment
He also commended the state corrections department for changing the dosage of the lethal cocktail.
The use of lethal injections was challenged by condemned prisoners Thomas Clyde Bowling and Ralph Baze. They claim the procedures Kentucky uses produces a painful death that violates the prohibition on cruel punishment.