The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 “appeared to be struggling for breath and heaved and coughed and clenched his left fist”, and his left eye appeared to be slightly open at times.94 In February 2017, the Governor of Arkansas set the execution dates for eight death row prisoners, stating that executions needed to be carried out in such quick succession in order to utilize the state’s final batch of the sedative midazolam before its expiration date at the end of April 2017. No state has carried out such a condensed sequence of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976. Furthermore, Arkansas had not held an execution for 12 years and the last time it carried out a dual execution was on 8 September 1999.95 The prisoners’ lawyers argued that by rushing the executions there was a considerable risk of mistakes and speeding up the procedure would inflict suffering on the prisoners tantamount to “cruel and unusual punishment”, which is prohibited under the United States Constitution.96 On 19 April 2017, the ODIHR Director raised concern about the compressed execution schedule in Arkansas and called on the United States to once more consider the complete abolition of capital punishment, in the context of the international debate linking the practice with torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.97 Changes in legislation During the reporting period, several states made a number of changes in their legislation on the death penalty or attempted to do so. In February 2017, Alabama was in the process of approving a bill to end the practice of permitting trial judges to impose death sentences, when the recommendation of a capital sentencing jury is to impose a life sentence instead. Before its entry into force,98 Alabama’s law allowed judicial override in sentencing capital murder cases. Alabama was the only state left permitting this.99 However, the legislation does not have retroactive effect, and it only affects future death sentences. 100 94  “Witness: Condemned Alabama man coughed, heaved during execution”, CNN, 9 December 2016, <http:// edition.cnn.com/2016/12/09/health/alabama-execution/>. 95  “Arkansas carries out first execution in 12 years”, Al Jazeera, 21 April 2017, <http://www.aljazeera.com/ news/2017/04/arkansas-carries-execution-12-years-170421052004430.html>; see also “Arkansas carries out first double execution in US since 2000”, The Telegraph, 25 April 2017,<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/25/ us-judge-temporarily-halts-second-arkansas-execution/> 96  “Lawyers race to save seven Arkansas inmates from ‘execution by assembly line’”, The Guardian, 10 April 2017, <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/10/arkansas-death-row-executions-april>. 97  Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, “ODIHR Director Link concerned by accelerated executions using questionable drug in Arkansas”, 19 April 2017, <http://www.osce.org/odihr/312321>. 98  The bill passed after the 2016 reporting period. “Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signs bill: Judges can no longer override juries in death penalty cases”, AL.com, 11 April 2017, <http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index. ssf/2017/04/post_317.html>. 99  Ibid. 100  “Alabama Ends Death Penalty by Judicial Override”, US News, 11 April 2017, <https://www.usnews.com/ news/best-States/alabama/articles/2017-04-11/alabama-ends-death-penalty-by-judicial-override>; see also “Alabama Legislature Votes to End Judicial Override”, Death Penalty Information Centre, <https://deathpenaltyinfo. org/node/6726>. 32