By AP/KWMU
St. Louis – Lawyers for a Missouri death row inmate want to depose a doctor and nurse involved in prisoner executions.
Lawyers for Michael Taylor of Kansas City also want to put on a defense witness who is an expert in pharmacology.
A federal appeals court panel in St. Louis heard arguments Tuesday in the case and promised a prompt decision whether to remand the case to federal district court for more testimony.
The defense team is not asking that Taylor's life be spared, but rather, a chance to show that a drug combination used in executions in Missouri - and across the country - amounts to unconstitutionally cruel punishment.
The state argued against what is says would be "opening the door to this exception in every case."