Virginia Supreme Court's orders in the Orbe case

Just posted on the Virginia judiciary site are the orders of the Virginia Supreme Court denying relief in the Orbe execution case. Orbe tried to litigate, among other things, the constitutionality of execution by lethal injunction. Here are the summaries as written by the website:

040598 Orbe v. Johnson 03/31/2004
Petitioner's federal constitutional issues, raised for the first time in his petition for rehearing of the Court's order denying his appeal, are barred pursuant to Rule 5:20 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia, and his petition for rehearing to set aside the judgment is denied.

040673 Orbe v. Johnson 03/31/2004
The trial court did not err in refusing injunctive relief staying appellant's execution because it lacked power to grant such relief and because a declaratory judgment action could not serve as the vehicle for obtaining such relief, due to the removal of appellant's claimed constitutional issues from actual controversy by operation of a statute under which he was deemed to have selected the method of his execution. Appellant's appeal and his request for a stay of execution are denied.

040597 Orbe v. Warden 03/30/2004
A petition for writ of habeas corpus attempting to challenge the constitutionality of Virginia's lethal injection protocol is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction where the petition failed to challenge petitioner's death sentence and either the fact or the duration of petitioner's imprisonment, and did not seek a determination that petitioner was entitled to an immediate or speedier release.

040598 Orbe v. Johnson 03/30/2004
The trial court correctly dismissed appellant's declaratory judgment action seeking an adjudication that Virginia's lethal injection protocol violates the Constitution of Virginia and a permanent injunction preventing the use of such protocol in carrying out his execution where appellant was deemed, by operation of statute, to have selected lethal injection rather than electrocution as the method of his execution. Appellant's petition for appeal and motions attendant thereto are denied.