SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – Indiana is standing by its decision to use a powerful anesthetic that a drugmaker says was not intended for lethal injections, as it looks to execute its first inmate since 2009.
The state plans to use Brevital as part of its three-drug lethal injection combination because of a shortage of sodium thiopental. The move is Indiana's first change in execution protocol since it abandoned use of the electric chair in 1995.
An Oklahoma inmate won a temporary stay of execution in 2010 by arguing Brevital was experimental and might lead to a “torturous” death. He was later executed with a different drug.
Indiana's move comes amid increased scrutiny of lethal injection drugs after changes elsewhere ended with condemned men in Ohio and Oklahoma writhing and taking unusually long to die.
