Ohio to ditch 2-drug cocktail for executions, use hard-to-find anesthetic
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The state said Thursday that it's dropping the two-drug combination administered to an inmate who repeatedly gasped and snorted during a troubling 26-minute execution.
The state prisons agency said it will again allow the use of an anesthetic that it used from 1999 through 2011.
The announcement that it's adding thiopental sodium back to the execution policy immediately raised questions of where the state would obtain such a drug.
In 2011, the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction switched to pentobarbital when the manufacturer restricted thiopental sodium's distribution, making it impossible to obtain for executions.
As part of the announcement, the state said the Feb. 11 execution of a condemned child killer is being delayed as the agency secures supplies of the new drug.
The state said in addition to delaying the execution of Ronald Phillips, set to die for the 1993 rape and killing of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter, other executions might be delayed.
Gov. John Kasich will issue a reprieve for Phillips and possibly other death row inmates once options for execution dates are determined and depending on the availability of drugs, said spokesman Rob Nichols.
Death penalty experts immediately questioned where Ohio would find supplies of thiopental sodium, saying it's no longer available in the United States, and overseas imports would run afoul of importing bans.
“Presumably Ohio is acquiring thiopental from a compounding pharmacy since the drug can no longer be purchased from international sources,” said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor.
and lethal injection expert.
The state is trying to find sources of both drugs, said JoEllen Smith, prisons spokeswoman. “All sources of the drugs permitted by the policy are being explored,” she said Thursday.
State public defender Tim Young, whose office defends many death row inmates, applauded the removal of the two-drug combo but said Ohio has changed its policy too often in recent years and should take a hard look at the entire capital punishment system.
Ohio was the first state to use the combination of midazolam, a powerful sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller, when it executed Dennis McGuire a year ago.
What transpired was the state's longest execution, a 26-minute procedure during which McGuire made gasping and snorting sounds. McGuire's adult children have sued the state over the execution, saying their father endured needless pain and suffering.
Arizona also used the same two-drug combination in a July execution that lasted nearly two hours, far longer than executions normally take.
Ohio had to change its drug policy soon. The state's remaining supply of midazolam and hydromorphone expires this spring, meaning the prisons agency wouldn't have been able to carry out executions after March without new supplies, The Associated Press reported earlier Thursday.
Under the new policy, Ohio plans to use a dose of either pentobarbital or thiopental sodium in executions.
