|
|
| Kentucky switching to 1 drug executions |
| By necn.com - AP |
| Published: 07/20/2012 |
|
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky will switch to a single drug to carry out the execution of condemned inmates under a new set of regulations filed Friday, becoming the latest state to drop a three-drug mixture for lethal injections. The new regulations allow the state to use either three mg of the anesthetic sodium thiopental or 5 mg of pentobarbital, a short-acting barbiturate. In making the move, Kentucky joins at least seven other states that use one drug for lethal injections and attempts to comply with a judge's order requiring the switch or face a trial to defend the three-drug method. Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd in April gave state officials until July 24 to propose any changes. A public hearing on the execution proposal is scheduled for Sept. 25 in Frankfort. If the procedure is adopted, the state could begin lethal injections again later this year. Gov. Steve Beshear still has two requests for executions on his desk — one for 56-year-old Ralph S. Baze for killing a sheriff and deputy in 1991 and another for six-time convicted killer Robert Foley. Justice and Public Safety Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin declined to comment. Randy Haight, condemned to death for killing two people in central Kentucky in 1985, told The Associated Press in a letter that death row inmates expected the switch to one drug. Haight declined to offer any thoughts on the change or recommendations to state officials, though. "I really don't think they care one way or the other about what we think about it anyway so why waste time?" Haight said. The new regulations also allow the state to use two drugs — the anti-seizure medication midazolam, better known as Versed, and hydromorphone, an analgesic known commonly as Dilaudad — if the chemicals used in a single-drug execution are not available seven days before a scheduled injection. Prison officials will have to notify the inmate a week before the execution which method will be used. Read More. |
Comments:
Login to let us know what you think
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
He has blue eyes. Cold like steel. His legs are wide. Like tree trunks. And he has a shock of red hair, red, like the fires of hell. His antics were known from town to town as he was a droll card and often known as a droll farceur. Hamilton Lindley with his madcap pantaloon is a zany adventurer and a cavorter with a motley troupe of buffoons.