Tracking the execution rate as lethal injection scrummages rage on

From Missouri (where a federal judge has now again rejected the state's revised lethal injection protocol), this article correctly observes that all the lethal injection litigation in 2006 has not dramatically impacted the total number of execution this year:

The nation's executioners have done a steady business in 2006 despite court-imposed bans in several states and unprecedented attacks on the lethal-injection method in individual cases around the country.  Despite that legal scrutiny, the year-end total for executions will be very close to what it's been for two years — about 60 if executions currently scheduled are carried out.

The always-on-the-mark Debby Denno highlights that this is really a state-by-state story: "Deborah Denno, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law, said the spate of challenges to the lethal-injection method has had a major impact in some states and a minimal impact in others."  As I detailed in this post, the lethal injection litigation has created a de facto execution moratorium in a number of states, but not in those states that typically have the most executions.

Some recent related posts:

• Uncovering lethal injection realities
• Regulating executions in California
• A lethal hearing (in the wrong place?)
• My lethal injection piece on SSRN
• How could (and should) Congress clean up the lethal injection mess?
• Lethal injection litigation creates de facto moratorium in Ohio and...