"Ga. switching to single-drug method for executions," is Kate Brumback's updated AP report, via Huffington Post.
The Georgia Department of Corrections said it will begin using a single dose of the sedative pentobarbital to carry out court-ordered death sentences. It had been using pentobarbital to sedate inmates before injecting pancuronium bromide to paralyze them and then potassium chloride to stop their hearts.
Georgia inmate Warren Lee Hill had been set to be executed Wednesday evening, but authorities said that execution has now been rescheduled for Monday.
Hill's attorney, Brian Kammer, expressed concern about the switch to a single-drug procedure even as he waged legal efforts to spare the inmate. "I think it is troubling to be confronted with a significant change in the execution protocol a day before the scheduled execution of my client," Kammer said in an email.
And:
Georgia's corrections department had been researching a switch for about a year, spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said Tuesday. She added that Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens ordered the change after his staff spoke with corrections officials around the country about their execution procedures and reviewed court opinions and the testimony of medical experts.
Georgia began using pentobarbital as part of its three-drug combination last year after another drug, sodium thiopental, became unavailable when its European supplier bowed to pressure from death penalty opponents and stopped making it. But pentobarbital is now in short supply after its manufacturer said it would try to prevent its use in executions.
Three other states – Arizona, Idaho and Ohio – have carried out single-drug executions using pentobarbital, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Ohio was the first to use just pentobarbital, during a March 2011 execution. Washington state has used the method with sodium thiopental, the center said. A total of 11 executions have been carried out using pentobarbital alone, said center executive director Richard Dieter.
Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state, last week announced that it would change to a single-drug method using pentobarbital. Its first execution using that method is set for Wednesday.
Missouri has said it plans to use propofol, the anesthetic blamed for Michael Jackson's death, for single-drug executions.
"Georgia delays execution amid drug protocol change," by David Beasley for Reuters.
Warren Lee Hill, 52, was set to be executed on Wednesday for beating another inmate to death in 1990 while serving a life sentence for fatally shooting his girlfriend.
The state Department of Corrections said the execution would be delayed until Monday as Georgia switches from a three-drug cocktail that included the sedative pentobarbital to pentobarbital alone.
"The Department has been using pentobarbital in its execution process, and based upon the experience of other states and competent medical testimony, the drug has proven to be effective," corrections officials said in a statement.
Officials did not say what prompted the change. Pentobarbital is sometimes used to euthanize animals.
Earlier coverage of Warren Hill's case begins at the link.
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