The Louisville Courier-Journal reports, "Kentucky proposes single-drug execution method." It's by Mike Wynn.
The state is proposing use of a single drug for lethal injections to replace the three-drug cocktail that death-row inmates have challenged as unconstitutional.
Kentucky Justice Cabinet officials filed the regulatory changes Friday, outlining a new protocol that would allow wardens to execute inmates with an intravenous solution of either sodium thiopental or pentobarbital, instead of the combination of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.
Death penalty opponents and inmates have argued that the three-drug mixture violates the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment by producing more pain compared to the one-drug method.
The fight over Kentucky’s method has been going on for a year and a half, and the debate has been one of the factors that have held up executions in recent years in the state. Executions cannot resume until the state’s protocol passes muster.
In April, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ordered the cabinet to change the protocol within 90 days or defend the mixture in his court.
Jennifer Brislin, spokeswoman for the justice cabinet, and Shelley Catharine Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office, both declined to comment on the changes Friday.
The proposals are scheduled for a public hearing Sept. 25 and could appear before the state’s Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee as soon as October. But any controversy could push the proposed regulations’ effective date as far back as January.
Advocates on both sides of the debate remained divided Friday afternoon.
Katherine Nichols, president of Kentuckians Voice for Crime Victims, said the group supports measures that would allow executions to move forward.
David Barron, an assistant public advocate with the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, said death-row inmates would continue legal fights against lethal injection under the proposed regulations, which he said leave many issues unresolved and create new problems.
The Lexington Herald-Leader carries the AP report, "Ky. switching to use of 1 drug in executions," written by Brett Barrouquere.
New regulations filed Friday also give the state two drug options, either the anesthetic sodium thiopental or the barbiturate pentobarbital.
Kentucky joins at least seven other states that use one drug in lethal injections.
The change means the state could resume lethal injections later this year.
A public hearing on the execution proposal is scheduled for Sept. 25 in Frankfort and the new regulations are expected to take effect 30 days later.
Justice and Public Safety Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin declined to comment on the regulations.
The new regulations also allow the state to use two drugs - the anti-seizure medication midazolam, better known as Versed, and hydromophone, an analgesic known commonly as Dilaudad - if the drugs used in a single-drug execution are not available seven days before a scheduled lethal injection. Prison officials will have to notify the inmate a week before the execution which method will be used.
Under the new rules, if the warden determines the inmate has not died from the first dose of the chemicals, successive injections may be ordered until the inmate is deceased. If the inmate isn't dead after 10 minutes, the warden may order an injection of 60 mg of hydromorphone until death occurs.
The regulations cover a variety of details about how an execution is carried out, ranging from when an inmate is moved from death row to the holding cells where the execution chamber is housed to who pronounces the inmate dead and how.
"One drug execution protocol in Kentucky," by Greg Stotelmyer for WTVQ-TV.
Justice and prison system officials refused to comment about the proposed new regs which will undergo a public hearing September 25 and could then go into place 30 days later.
And:
The trio of regs filed Friday give the prison system two different options for what drug to use.
Currently 33 men and one woman are on death row.
Earlier coverage of Kentucky lethal injection begins at the link. Related posts are in the lethal injection category index.
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