Execution Of Ill Killer In Alabama Is Stayed

MOBILE, Ala., Oct. 24 -- A federal appeals court granted a stay of execution Wednesday for Daniel Lee Siebert, a terminally ill murderer who said his cancer medication would interact with a lethal injection, inflicting unnecessary pain.

In granting the stay, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta reversed an order by U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller in Montgomery.

In its brief order, the panel noted that Alabama has made a minor change to its execution protocol and that Siebert would be the first to experience that change. The panel said it halted the execution until the U.S. Supreme Court hears a challenge of Kentucky's use of lethal injection.

After the Kentucky case is decided, the district court in Montgomery must reconsider its decision based on any guidance from the high court, the 11th Circuit ruled.

The state's attorney, Clay Crenshaw, said he will ask the full 11th Circuit to rehear the stay request. Siebert's attorney did not immediately return a phone message for comment.

Siebert, 53, who has been on Alabama's death row for more than 20 years and has terminal pancreatic cancer, was facing lethal injection Thursday at Holman prison near Atmore.

Siebert was condemned for the Feb. 19, 1986, strangulation deaths of Sherri Weathers, 24, and her two sons, 5-year-old Chad and 4-year-old Joey, at their Talladega apartment. He was also convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the slaying of Linda Jarman, a neighbor of Weathers who was killed the same night.

Siebert's case appeared headed for the U.S. Supreme Court, which already has agreed to hear a lethal-injection challenge from Kentucky. Siebert's attorney, Thomas M. Goggans of Montgomery, also sought a delay until there is a ruling in the Kentucky case -- a request opposed by the Alabama attorney general's office.

Crenshaw, an assistant attorney general and the state's capital punishment chief, told the 11th Circuit in a filing Wednesday that Siebert's assertion about his cancer medication possibly interacting with a drug cocktail used in the execution was never supported by evidence.

Alabama ensures that the inmate is unconscious by administering a lethal dose of sodium thiopental, according to the court filing, and potassium chloride stops the heart.

Siebert argues the mix of drugs would likely result in an unacceptable risk of unnecessary pain in violation of the protections against cruel and unusual punishment found in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

"Siebert's speculative Eighth Amendment claim pales in comparison to the interest the general public has in the orderly administration of justice," Crenshaw told the 11th Circuit. "Put simply, the public has an interest in seeing Siebert held accountable for his horrific crime."

Siebert's attorney submitted a letter from an oncologist, Jimmie Harvey of Birmingham, that says "complications could arise" from the drug combinations.

Opponents of the death penalty had urged Gov. Bob Riley to delay the execution because Siebert has cancer and is expected to live a few months, but Riley declined Monday, saying the state should carry out the jury's wishes that Siebert die for murders that "were monstrous, brutal and ghastly."