WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that he would support a national moratorium on lethal injections until the Supreme Court reviews the protocol used in a botched execution in Oklahoma last year.
In remarks at a National Press Club luncheon, likely one of his last public appearances before leaving office, Holder said the Justice Department has not completed the review of the death penalty that President Barack Obama ordered last spring.
The review was initiated after an execution in Oklahoma in which an inmate convulsed on a gurney for an extended period before dying of an apparent heart attack after 43 minutes.
“The Supreme Court’s determination as to whether or not lethal injection is consistent with our Constitution is one that ought to occur,” Holder said. “I think a moratorium until the Supreme Court made that determination would be appropriate.”
