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Page Number: 14.0

10 

GLOSSIP v. GROSS 

Opinion of the Court 

midazolam  for  petitioners,  and  Dr.  Roswell  Evans,  a
for 
doctor  of  pharmacy,  provided  expert  testimony 
respondents.

After  reviewing  the  evidence,  the  District  Court  issued
an  oral  ruling  denying  the  motion  for  a  preliminary  in-
junction.  The  District  Court  first  rejected  petitioners’ 
challenge under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 
Inc.,  509  U. S.  579  (1993),  to  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Evans. 
It concluded that Dr. Evans, the Dean of Auburn Universi-
ty’s School of Pharmacy, was well qualified to testify about 
midazolam’s  properties  and  that  he  offered  reliable  testi-
mony.  The District Court then held that petitioners failed
to  establish  a  likelihood  of  success  on  the  merits  of  their 
claim  that  the  use  of  midazolam  violates  the  Eighth 
Amendment.  The court provided two independent reasons 
for  this  conclusion.  First,  the  court  held  that  petitioners
failed to identify a known and available method of execu-
tion that presented a substantially less severe risk of pain 
than the method that  the State  proposed to use.  Second, 
the court found that petitioners failed to prove that Okla-
homa’s protocol “presents a risk that is ‘sure or very likely
to cause serious illness and needless suffering,’ amounting 
to ‘an objectively intolerable risk of harm.’ ”  App. 96 (quot-
ing Baze, 553 U. S., at 50).  The court emphasized that the 
Oklahoma protocol featured numerous safeguards, includ-
ing the establishment of two IV access sites, confirmation 
of the viability of those sites, and monitoring of the offend-
er’s level of consciousness throughout the procedure. 

The  District  Court  supported  its  decision  with  findings
of  fact  about  midazolam.    It  found  that  a  500-milligram
dose of midazolam “would make it a virtual certainty that
any individual will be at a sufficient level of unconscious-
ness  to  resist  the  noxious  stimuli  which  could  occur  from 
the  application  of  the  second  and  third  drugs.”    App.  77.
Indeed,  it  found  that  a  500-milligram  dose  alone  would 
likely cause death by respiratory arrest within 30 minutes