By Rosie Manins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — A Georgia death row inmate who fatally shot a man while fleeing from a bank robbery in Gwinnett County cannot be executed by firing squad instead of lethal injection, a federal judge in Atlanta has ruled.
Michael Nance has been in a legal battle since 2020 with the leaders of Georgia’s corrections department and the state prison that houses and executes those sentenced to death. He claims the state’s lethal injection method would be unlawfully cruel and won’t work as intended because of his deteriorated veins and prolonged exposure to back pain medication.
Nance asked U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee to let him become the first person in Georgia’s modern history to be legally executed by firing squad. Boulee, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, declined to do so, ending Nance’s case on Thursday.
“Plaintiff has failed to show that his execution by lethal injection under Georgia’s protocol is substantially likely to result in his suffering an unconstitutional level of pain or discomfort,” Boulee wrote in an order. “None of the evidence that plaintiff presented demonstrated that the state, through executing him under the protocol, would intensify the sentence of death with a cruel superaddition of terror, pain or disgrace.”
Boulee said he didn’t need to address Nance’s argument that death by firing squad is a feasible and readily available alternative that could significantly reduce his pain. The state defendants had argued against that theory in a nonjury trial in May.
Cory Isaacson, the legal director of the ACLU of Georgia and one of Nance’s lawyers in the case, said they will appeal the ruling to the Atlanta-based federal appeals court. Isaacson declined to comment further.
Boulee said that under the appellate court’s precedent, a prisoner challenging a lethal injection protocol as Nance did must show that the protocol creates a substantial risk of serious harm. The prisoner must also show that there are known, feasible and available alternatives which are readily implemented and will significantly reduce the risk of severe pain.
The judge said the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment, does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death.
Boulee said Nance has had three medical procedures since filing his lawsuit where an intravenous catheter was inserted into his veins without a problem. He said the medical staff who administer lethal injections in Georgia are highly qualified and have extensive experience.
“If a complication occurred, the weight of the evidence presented at the trial indicates that the medical professionals at the execution would be able to detect it and address it in a manner that would not cause constitutionally intolerable pain or discomfort,” Boulee said.
Nance also alleged his prolonged use of back pain medication had made his brain less receptive to other drugs, such as the one used in lethal injections. The judge said two doctors testified that there was unlikely to be an associated complication.
“Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate that he is entitled to relief,” the judge wrote.
A spokesperson for the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, which is representing the state defendants in the case, did not immediately respond Friday to an inquiry about the ruling.
Nance, who was convicted of killing Gabor Balogh in 1993, isn’t the only Georgia prisoner on death row challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol.
De’Kelvin Rafael Martin, convicted of murdering his girlfriend’s 12-year-old child and elderly grandparents among other crimes, is similarly suing state corrections leaders. His case is pending before another federal judge in Atlanta.
Nance’s attorneys argued at trial that he could be the next victim of a botched execution by lethal injection, citing problems with the method in other parts of the country.
State attorneys said none of the lethal injections in Georgia had involved complications.
Georgia last executed an inmate in March 2024.
The state’s execution method switched from electrocution to lethal injection in 2000. Between 1735 to 1924, the legal method of execution in Georgia was hanging, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
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