Virginia on Thursday set July 24 as the execution date for a man convicted of bludgeoning a co-worker to death in 200l but who is challenging the state’s method of lethal injection.
Christopher Scott Emmett is appealing his sentence, claiming Virginia’s method of capital punishment is cruel and unusual because a low dose of anesthetics is used and a second dose is not offered. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard his appeal May 14 and is considering the case.
Emmett, 36, was convicted of capital murder and robbery for beating a co-worker to death in a motel room they were sharing in April 2001. He was sentenced to death in November 2001.
In October 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Emmett a stay of execution while it deliberated on whether lethal injection violates the Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Last month, the high court upheld Kentucky’s method of lethal injection.
Emmett’s appeal argues that Virginia uses a low dose of anesthetics and, should the prisoner require more injections, “they administer more of the painful drugs without increasing anesthetics,” said his attorney, Ginger D. Anders.
Emmett would be the second Virginia inmate executed since the high court reaffirmed lethal injection last month. The first was Kevin Green, who was put to death Tuesday night for killing a convenience store clerk in southern Virginia in 1998.
Emmett’s execution would be the state’s 100th since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty. Virginia has the second-highest number of executions in the United States, second only to Texas with 405.
Edward Nathaniel Bell, who was facing execution in Virginia in July for murdering a Winchester police officer, was granted a reprieve by the Supreme Court just over two weeks ago.
The high court will hear his argument — that the state refused to weigh evidence of substandard legal representation during his trial — in the fall.
