KaiserDillon, Defense Team Wins Preliminary Injunction in Lethal Injection Cases
KaiserDillon Partner Jon Jeffress and Associate Norm Anderson, working together with capital defenders and other prominent defense firms, have won an important court ruling enjoining the executions of four defendants under the Bureau of Prisons’ new capital punishment protocol.
As reported in Politico, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan has blocked the scheduled executions of four federal death row inmates due to the injunction, which were scheduled for next month. The order, issued Wednesday night, effectively freezes the Trump administration’s effort to resume imposing the death penalty in a federal system that saw its last execution more than a decade and a half ago.
In granting the injunction, Judge Chutkan noted the fact that permitting the executions would deprive the inmates of their ability to pursue their legal challenges. She also turned aside the Justice Department’s claim that time was of the essence, noting that revisions to the federal death penalty protocol languished for years after the development of drug shortages.