MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A federal appeals court on Tuesday declined to halt Alabama’s first scheduled execution in more than two years.
Christopher Eugene Brooks is scheduled to be put to death Thursday for the 1992 rape and murder of Jo Deann Campbell.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied an emergency stay sought by Brooks. Attorneys for Brooks argued his execution should be put on hold until a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s lethal injection method goes to trial this spring.
The court ruled that Brooks, who joined the lawsuit two months ago, had an “unnecessary and unjustifiable delay in challenging Alabama’s lethal injection.”
The judges also said Brooks failed to meet his requirement to suggest an alternative execution method, “that pose a substantially lower risk of severe pain relative to Alabama’s current lethal injection protocol.”