Published June 08, 2017
The Latest on the execution of Alabama inmate Robert Melson (all times local):
2:55 p.m.
Lawyers for an Alabama death row inmate are making another last-minute bid to halt his execution.
Attorneys for 46-year-old Robert Bryant Melson on Thursday filed another request with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal.
The filing came just a few hours before Melson is scheduled to die by lethal injection at a south Alabama prison. Melson was convicted of killing three people during a 1994 robbery of a fast food restaurant.
A panel of three judges on the 11th Circuit denied one stay request Thursday. The subsequent request from Melson was filed in a related case before the 11th Circuit in which other Alabama inmates are challenging the humaneness of the state's lethal injection procedure.
The state has urged the 11th Circuit to let the execution proceed.
Melson' lawyers wrote that he is scheduled for execution using a protocol "that has never been determined to be constitutional."
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1:30 p.m.
The Alabama Supreme Court and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have both refused to stop the execution of an Alabama inmate convicted of killing three people during the 1994 robbery of fast food restaurant.
Justices on Thursday denied a stay of execution for 46-year-old Robert Bryant Melson who is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. CDT.
He was convicted of killing three people during a 1994 robbery of a Popeye's in Gadsden, 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Birmingham.
Melson's attorneys argued about the effectiveness of a sedative the state plans to use at the start of the execution. They claim Midazolam does not reliably render an inmate unconscious before other drugs stop the lungs and heart.
The Alabama attorney general's office had asked for the execution to proceed arguing the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld Midazolam's use and allowed other executions to proceed using it.
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3:00 a.m.
Alabama is preparing to execute an inmate for the shooting deaths of three fast food restaurant workers during a 1994 robbery.
Forty-six-year-old Robert Bryant Melson is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday evening.
State prosecutors say Melson robbed a Popeye's restaurant in Gadsden, 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Birmingham. They say Melson ordered the employees into the restaurant's freezer and opened fire, killing three and wounding another.
Melson's attorneys asked appellate courts to halt the execution in order to review the constitutionality of Alabama's lethal injection protocol. Melson and other inmates are appealing a judge's dismissal of lawsuits that argues Alabama plans to use the sedative midazolam that has been linked to what they say were problematic executions.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/the-latest-lawyers-file-new-motion-to-stay-execution