A convicted murderer in Georgia is reportedly asking to be executed by a firing squad due to a condition of his veins his lawyers are arguing makes lethal injection an inadequate option.
Michael Wade Nance was convicted of killing another man in 1993 following a bank robbery, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was sentenced to death in 2002, according to the newspaper.
Nance’s attorney filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia last week a request for a firing squad to be used, arguing that Nance’s veins are “unsuitable” for injection and the method would cause him “excruciating pain,” CNN reports.
The suit also reportedly said that Nance uses a prescription drug to treat chronic back pain and argues that it has changed his brain chemistry in a way that would compromise the effectiveness of the pentobarbital and cause a greater chance of extended, great pain for Nance.
A firing squad would be a “swift and virtually” painless option, the suit reportedly said.
Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the lawsuit does not change his position that Nance should be executed.
“If he needs a firing squad, then let him have it,” Porter said. “It’s certainly a unique request.”
Death-row inmate J.W. Ledford Jr. asked for a firing squad in 2017 because he used the same drug for chronic back pain; his request was rejected and he was put to death by lethal injection, according to the Journal-Constitution.