Drug added to carry out death sentences

January 26, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

State prison officials are changing the drug used in Ohio executions, citing a national shortage and discontinued manufacture of the current lethal-injection drug.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction announced Tuesday that it will substitute pentobarbital for sodium thiopental for executions scheduled in March and thereafter.

According to DRC, the new drug is used in hospitals to induce coma in heart- surgery patients. It also is used by veterinarians to treat or euthanize pets.

According to prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith, “We are purchasing the drug from a manufacturer that provides drugs to hospitals. We are not purchasing this drug from a veterinarian supplier.”

The state has enough sodium thiopental for the next scheduled execution — Frank Spisak, who will face the death penalty Feb. 17 for the 1982 murders of three people on the campus of Cleveland State University.

Pending legal action, the new drug will be used in the March 10 execution of Johnnie Baston, convicted in the murder of a downtown Toledo store owner.

“DRC will continue to exercise its execution responsibility in a professional, humane and dignified manner,” according to DRC.

Pentobarbital has been used in several executions in Oklahoma and is “widely available and manufactured in the United States,” according to DRC. That state has faced legal challenges over the drug, however.

Ohio prison officials have sent details of the drug change to U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost, who is considering legal challenges to Ohio’s execution policies.

Pentobarbital will be administered intravenously in the same way that sodium thiopental has been administered. The state changed its lethal-injection process in late 2009, switching to the single-drug protocol from a three-drug combination. In cases where suitable veins are not accessible, a backup plan calls for an intramuscular injection.

Smith said the drug change was the only change made to the process the state follows for lethal injections.

“Ohio has not used this drug in previous executions,” Smith said in an e-mail message. “However, examining the issue and given the fact that Oklahoma has used this drug in three executions, we are confident in moving forward with the new protocol.”