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Judge Rules Ohio's Method of Execution Violates Due Process

(From the ACLU of Ohio website)
A judge has agreed with the ACLU of Ohio that the way Ohio carries out executions is unconstitutional. In an opinion in the cases State of Ohio v. Ruben Rivera and State of Ohio v. Ronald McCloud, Judge James Burge of the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas said that the three-drug cocktail used by Ohio and every other state to perform lethal injections carries "an unnecessary and arbitrary risk" of effectively torturing the inmate to death. That risk violates the rights of the accused to a quick and painless execution as mandated by Ohio law. The state's unwillingness to provide the condemned men and women what the law guarantees them violates their right to substantive due process.

Click here to read the judgment

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