Ward v. State

The defendant was convicted of rape and murder in 2002, and sentenced to death. After several hearings, his sentence was affirmed. The state filed a motion to set an execution date, but the defendant challenged the state’s lethal injection protocol and execution chamber procedures on constitutional grounds.The court held that the defendant’s claims do not challenge the validity or sentence but rather the method of execution, which is outside the bounds of the requested post-conviction relief. The Court noted that Ward may pursue other legal avenues to challenge the execution method but denied his request to file a successive post-conviction petition because he failed to meet the “reasonable possibility” standard.