Gov. Mike Rounds halted South Dakota’s first execution in 59 years just hours before it was scheduled Tuesday, saying the state law detailing how to administer lethal drugs is obsolete.
Elijah Page, 24, had asked to be put to death by lethal injection for the 2000 torture murder of a Spearfish man.
Rounds and Atty. Gen. Larry Long said that a 1984 law requires the state to use two drugs to kill a condemned person–but that state prison officials planned to use the standard three-drug combination, putting them at legal risk.
“I will not have the individuals responsible for carrying out this execution to be placed in a position to where they would be or could be in violation of a state statute in the carrying out of an execution,” Rounds said.
The delay is in place until July 1, he said. That would give lawmakers time during the next legislative session to review the law and bring it into line with most other states that use lethal injection.
Rounds said he learned of the legal problem last week after reading an Aug. 14 transcript of a competency hearing for Page.
Also Tuesday, Oklahoma murderer Eric Allen Patton, 49, was executed under a revised state procedure aimed at minimizing pain by delivering a larger dose of anesthesia before the fatal drugs are administered.
