Death row prisoner complains at execution delay

The US Supreme Court halted the execution of a condemned man after a lawsuit challenged one of the drugs used to carry out the death sentence.

Kevin Lee Zimmerman was given a reprieve about 20 minutes before he was to have been put to death in Huntsville, Texas, for a fatal stabbing and robbery at a Beaumont motel in 1987.

“I’m disappointed,” Zimmerman told a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman. “I was ready to go. The stay only means 18 more months of this crap.”

In a brief order, Justice Antonin Scalia stopped the punishment pending an additional order from him or the court.

The lawsuit had allowed another inmate, Billy Frank Vickers, to avoid the death chamber on Tuesday. Rejection of the lawsuit yesterday by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for Zimmerman’s execution until the Supreme Court order was issued.

Citing the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment, the lawsuit sought to stop use of pancuronium bromide – a drug that paralyses muscles.

Texas, the first state to execute condemned inmates by injection, uses a combination of three drugs: pancuronium bromide, the barbiturate sodium thiopental and potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest.

Vickers’ execution was postponed when the 5th Circuit failed to rule by midnight, and the death warrant expired.