The United States Supreme Court issued a stay of execution in the case of Ernest Johnson shortly before he was due to be put to death in Missouri on 3 November.
The stay relates to an appeal brought by Ernest Johnson’s lawyers challenging the constitutionality of Missouri’s lethal injection protocol as applied to their client. Since he underwent surgery in August 2008 to remove part of a brain tumour (it could not be removed in its entirety), Ernest Johnson has suffered seizures. His lawyers filed a complaint in federal court seeking to stop his execution, arguing that his lethal injection could cause him to have violent seizures which would render his execution unconstitutional. In an affidavit filed along with the complaint, an expert in anaesthesiology and surgery stated: “As a result of Mr Johnson’s brain tumour, brain defect, and brain scar, a substantial risk of serious harm will occur during his execution as a result of a violent seizure that may be induced by Pentobarbital injection…I am of the medical opinion that Mr Johnson faces a significant risk for a serious seizure as the direct result of the combination of the Missouri lethal injection protocol and MrJohnson’s permanent and disabling neurologic disease”.
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