Ohio adjusts its lethal-injection protocol

ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) — Ohio will use a revised protocol at its next execution, planned in two weeks.

The revision allows executioners to use a second dose of sedative to ensure that a condemned inmate is sufficiently unconscious before fatal drugs are administered.

Ohio has said it believes it previously made sure that inmates were unconscious and, therefore, not in pain when fatal drugs are given. But critics have argued that it’s possible for inmates being executed to experience pain.

A federal lawsuit is challenging Ohio’s lethal-injection system.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction today confirmed a report in The (Elyria) Chronicle-Telegram that procedures have been adjusted as of last week.

The state plans to execute 39-year-old Daniel Wilson of Elyria on June 3.