Ohio obtains hundreds of vials of lethal drugs

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The state has obtained hundreds of vials of lethal-injection drugs, allowing it to put a condemned child killer to death next month and conduct multiple executions after, records show.

Inventory logs obtained by The Associated Press through a public-records request show the state received supplies three times in September and October for the first drug used in the process, a sedative called midazolam, which has been at the center of several lawsuits over lethal injection.

The records show the state obtained supplies twice in September and October for the second drug used in the process and three times in September for the third drug.

The state has said the drugs it plans to use on the first three executions this year are standard drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Attorneys representing death-row inmates have been unable to identify the suppliers or producers because of the 2015 law and because recent federal court rulings bar them from obtaining information through usual evidence channels.

The logs show the state could conceivably carry out dozens of executions with these supplies. What is unclear are the expiration dates for the drugs.

The state plans to execute Ronald Phillips on Feb. 15 for the 1993 rape and murder of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in Akron. Seven other executions also are scheduled this year.