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Judge blocks Montana from using particular drug in lethal injections
By therepublic.com- Matt Volz
Published: 10/07/2015

HELENA, Montana — A judge on Tuesday blocked Montana from using a particular drug in lethal injections, effectively halting executions in the state until an adequate substitute can be found or lawmakers change the law.

The barbiturate pentobarbital does not meet the state law's standards for executions, District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock said. Sherlock stressed that his ruling is not on whether the death penalty is constitutional or whether the drug's use constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, but only whether the drug satisfies the law.

"Scrupulous adherence to statutory mandates is especially important here given the gravity of the death penalty," Sherlock said in his order.

Montana's two-drug lethal injection law requires the use of an "ultra-fast acting barbiturate" to quickly put the inmate into a coma, followed by a paralytic agent called pancuronium. The state's execution protocol lists sodium pentothal as the barbiturate, with pentobarbital as a substitute.

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