Inmate to ask South Dakota Supreme Court to delay execution
Posted November 1, 2019 2:14 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A South Dakota prison inmate has filed notice of plans to appeal a judge’s refusal to delay his execution.
Charles Rhines is scheduled to receive lethal injection next week, though a specific date has not yet been announced. Rhines was convicted of killing a 22-year-old doughnut shop employee who interrupted him during a burglary in 1992.
A South Dakota Supreme Court clerk says the notice was received Friday. Rhines’ attorneys did not respond to messages seeking comment.
The 63-year-old Rhines argued in his appeal that the pentobarbital to be used in his execution doesn’t meet the “ultra-short-acting” standard for lethal injection drugs in effect at the time of his conviction. A circuit judge on Thursday rejected his argument, saying the drug works as fast or faster as other drugs cited by Rhines when used in lethal doses.
The Associated Press
