Colorado Adds Pentobarbital to Lethal Injection Drug List

"ACLU: Colorado has added alternate drug for executions," is by Dan Elliott for the Associated Press.  It's via the Coloradoan.

Colorado’s instructions for putting prisoners to death by lethal injection have been revised to include an alternate drug, underscoring problems states face in carrying out executions, the American Civil Liberties Union said Friday.

The ACLU released a copy of the state Department of Corrections execution protocol, which it obtained after filing suit against the department.

The protocol, which was heavily redacted, included a list of three drugs to be used for executions, along with an alternate for one of the drugs, sodium pentothal.

The protocol said pentobarbital can be used instead.

That’s a change from a 2011 version of the protocol, said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU in Colorado.

“The change might reflect the difficulty the Department of Corrections was having in procuring the drug that they had listed earlier,” he said.

It also underscores the obstacles to carrying out executions that don’t subject inmates to cruel and unusual punishment, Silverstein said.

Earlier coverage from Colorado begins at the link.  You can jump to earlier coverage of Colorado lethal injection issues.  Related posts are in the lethal injection index.