Missouri’s execution protocol allows for “surgery without anesthesia” if the usual process of finding a suitable vein to inject the deadly drug doesn’t work, lawyers for a death row inmate say in an appeal seeking to spare him the life.
Brian Dorsey, 52, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for killing his cousin and her husband in their central Missouri home in 2006. His lawyers are seeking clemency from Gov. Mike Parson and have several appeals pending.
A federal court appeal focuses on how Missouri injects the lethal dose of pentobarbital. The written protocol provides for the insertion of primary and secondary intravenous lines. But it gives no indication of how far the execution team can go to find a suitable vein, leaving open the possibility of an invasive “cutting procedure,” Dorsey’s lawyers say.
What is a “reduction procedure”?
The procedure involves an incision that can be several inches wide and several inches deep. Forceps are used to remove tissue from a vein which becomes the injection site.
“It’s surgery,” said Arin Brenner, a federal public defender and one of the attorneys representing Dorsey. “It would be surgery without anesthesia.”
Brenner said Dorsey was at higher than normal risk of needing a reduction because he was obese. His veins could also be compromised because he is diabetic and a former intravenous drug user.
A spokesman for Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey had no comment but referred to the state’s response to the appeal.
“Reduction procedures are rarely, if ever, used under Missouri’s execution protocol,” the response states. “And in the event that a reduced procedure is necessary, medical staff have access to pain medication.”
Missouri Department of Corrections via AP, file
The medications would be inadequate and if the procedure is necessary, Dorsey would have to receive local anesthesia, said Megan Crane, another attorney representing him.
“It’s extremely painful,” Crane said. “Even if we give him an oral painkiller or an opioid, it won’t relieve the pain.”
Dorsey’s lawyers say resorting to this surgery would violate his constitutional guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment as well as his right to religious freedom because it would prevent him from having meaningful interaction with his spiritual advisor, including the administration of last rites.
The question is not theoretical. In Idaho, the planned February execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech was halted after a medical team unsuccessfully tried eight times to establish an IV. It is unclear if, when and how the state might attempt to execute him again.
Lines IV
The execution process in Missouri is shrouded in secrecy, so it is impossible to know whether, or how often, mitigation procedures were necessary. No independent observer sees the IV line inserted. The spiritual advisor only enters the room when preparations are complete. Witnesses sit in dark rooms with the curtains drawn until prison officers open them seconds before the drug is injected.
Dorsey’s lawyers question whether a reduction procedure was used in January 2023 when Amber McLaughlin was executed. It would be the first execution of an openly transgender person in the United States.
The Rev. Lauren Bennett of St. Louis served as McLaughlin’s spiritual advisor. She remembers McLaughlin saying, “Ow, ow, ow.” It hurts,” but said McLaughlin was unable to explain the cause of his pain before his death.
Problems with the IV have been problematic in runs elsewhere.
In 2014, Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett was pronounced dead 43 minutes into his execution, at times writhing in pain and gritting his teeth throughout the process. A state investigation showed that the execution team repeatedly failed to insert an intravenous line into his arms, jugular vein, foot and subclavian vein in his upper torso, before eventually running a line through a vein in Lockett’s groin.
The examination revealed that Lockett died after the line came loose and the deadly chemicals were pumped into the tissues surrounding the injection site rather than directly into his bloodstream. There is no indication in the report that Lockett ever received anesthesia.
In 2022, it took more than three hours to run Joe Nathan James Jr. in Alabama. The state said the process was delayed due to difficulties establishing an IV line. Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology at Emory University and an expert on lethal injection who witnessed the private autopsy, said he saw “multiple puncture sites on both arms” and two incisions in the middle of the arm , which he said were indications. effort to make a reduction. It is unclear whether he received anesthesia.
Messages were left Friday with Oklahoma prison officials and Alabama.
What did Brian Dorsey do?
Dorsey, formerly of Jefferson City, was convicted of killing his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Ben, on Dec. 23, 2006, at their home near New Bloomfield. Prosecutors said that earlier in the day, Dorsey called Sarah Bonnie looking to borrow money to pay two drug dealers who were in his apartment.
Dorsey went to the Bonnies’ house that evening. After they went to bed, Dorsey took a shotgun from the garage and killed them both before sexually assaulting Sarah Bonnie’s body, prosecutors said.
Sarah Bonnie’s parents found the bodies the next day. The couple’s 4-year-old daughter was unhurt.
In the clemency petition, 72 current and former state correctional officers asked Parson, a Republican and former county sheriff, to commute Dorsey’s sentence to life in prison, citing his virtually impeccable record of good behavior in prison.
“The Brian I’ve known for years couldn’t hurt anyone,” one officer wrote. “The Brian I know doesn’t deserve to be executed.”
A spokesperson said Parson was still reviewing the pardon request.
An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court involves the $12,000 flat fee for Dorsey’s court-appointed attorneys. The appeal argues that with the flat fee, its attorneys had a financial incentive to resolve the case quickly. They encouraged Dorsey to plead guilty, but without demanding that prosecutors accept life in prison instead of the death penalty.
Dorsey’s lawyers had also asked the Missouri Supreme Court to stay the execution on the grounds that the acting director of the Department of Corrections, Trevor Foley, has not been confirmed by the State Senate and is therefore not qualified to oversee an execution. The court rejected this request on Friday.
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