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Ohio Supreme Court schedules new executions
March 2, 2011
Ohio: The Ohio Supreme Court yesterday announced three new executions to occur in November 2011, January 2012 and February 2012. Earlier in February, the Court announced seven executions for 2011. These executions are set to occur in the midst of a controversial use of a different drug during lethal injection.[1]
The process of lethal injection is carried out using three different drugs. The first drug, sodium thiopental, is no longer being manufactured in the United States. Instead, the company that makes it moved its operations to Italy, where the government will not allow its export for use in executions in the United States. This move has prompted thirteen states to ask the federal Department of Justice for help in procuring the drug in order to continue utilizing the death penalty.[2]
In Ohio, the state has decided to use pentobarbital to induce unconsciousness. The company that manufactures this drug has sent a letter to the state, asking them not to use it in executions. According to the spokeperson, "We are dedicated to saving people's lives. So to use this product to end lives goes against everything we are in business to do."[3] Regardless, the state plans to use it for the first time on March 10, after the last of sodium thiopental is used in February. [4]
It should be noted that the state of Oklahoma has used pentobarbital in an execution already this year, with no noted complications.[5]
Footnotes
- ↑ The Columbus Dispatch, "Execution dates set for three men in Ohio," March 2, 2011
- ↑ Delaware Online, "Delaware courts: States scramble for solution to shortage of drug used in executions," February 13, 2011
- ↑ UPI.com, "Ohio to use pentobarbital for executions," January 31, 2011
- ↑ Columbus Dispatch, "Ohio schedules 7 more executions in 2011," February 9, 2011
- ↑ Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Death Row (dead link)
