Ohio drops 2-drug lethal injection method, delays execution

The state of Ohio will stop using the two-drug lethal injection combination that led to the protracted death of an inmate a year ago and has postponed an execution scheduled for February, officials said on Thursday.

The state prisons agency also said it will again allow the use of the anesthetic thiopental sodium, which it previously used from 1999 through 2011, raising questions of where the state would obtain the 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 Thursday's 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 also be delayed.

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.

With Phillips' execution on hold, Ohio still has executions scheduled in March, May, July, September and November.

Gov. John Kasich signed a bill into law last month that would shield the names of companies providing lethal drugs to Ohio. The goal of the bill is to make it easier to obtain compounded pentobarbital, the state's first choice for executions but which it hasn't been able to find.

Missouri and Texas have supplies of compounded pentobarbital and have used the drug successfully in several recent executions.

Four death row inmates in Ohio have sued over the new law, saying it restricts information that helps inform the public debate over capital punishment.

One of those inmates, Raymond Tibbetts, is scheduled to die March 12 for the 1997 fatal stabbing of Fred Hicks in Cincinnati. 

Wire services