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Ohio switching to be only state with single-drug lethal injections

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The Ohio death chamber at the Lucasville prison. Ohio is the first state to switch to a one-drug system for lethal injection executions.

KIICHIRO SATO/AP The Ohio death chamber at the Lucasville prison. Ohio is the first state to switch to a one-drug system for lethal injection executions.

Executioners may now choose injection into muscle to kill prisoners with poor veins

By Tom Beyerlein, Staff Writer Updated 5:30 PM Friday, November 13, 2009

Ohio will be the only state in the nation to use a one-drug system for lethal injection, and to permit a backup policy of allowing lethal injections into an inmate's muscles, the state’s prison chief announced Friday, Nov. 13.

Terry Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said executioners will use a five-gram dose of thiopental sodium, 2.5 times the amount previously used, to cause condemned inmates to go to sleep and stop breathing. The state no longer will use two other drugs, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, that paralyzed the muscles and stopped the heart.

If viable veins cannot be found, executioners will use an intramuscular injection of two drugs, midazolam and hydromorphone, which also would put the inmate to sleep and stop respiration.

“I’d like to congratulate Ohio on taking a first and major step in correcting problems with the execution protocol,” said Ohio Public Defender Tim Young, whose office represents many death row inmates. “It’s a major step for Ohio and a major step for painless executions. I would encourage other states to follow Ohio’s lead.”

Young said his only disappointment with the plan is that Collins didn’t place a limit on the time spent or number of attempts made in attempting intravenous injections before switching to the alternate method.

Collins said he filed an affidavit in U.S. District Court today spelling out the changes. He said the procedures will be in place by Nov. 30 and, if a current stay of execution is lifted, could be used for the planned Dec. 8 execution of Kenneth Biros of Trumbull County.

Asked if he expects legal challenges to the new procedures, Collins said, “Everything I do has backlash, so I’m sure there will be some backlash from someone. Will I have legal challenges? Probably so.”

Collins said the one-drug system will render moot legal arguments that the three-drug procedure, with its paralytic drug, could mask a painful death by heart attack.

The backup system would allow executioners to inject directly into the muscle on inmates whose veins are prone to collapse. Executioners have had difficulty finding viable veins in several lethal injections in recent years, most notably in the failed execution Sept. 15 of convicted killer Romell Broom of Cleveland.

Collins said the new procedures will be painless and won’t cause any disturbing effects such as flailing by the inmate. The one-drug system will take about as long to cause death — 15 to 20 minutes — as the current procedure, he said. The intramuscular injection, similar to a flu shot in its delivery, would take up to 30 minutes or so.

The new procedures were crafted after Broom became the first U.S. inmate to survive an attempt at lethal injection when executioners were unable to find a usable vein after two hours of attempts at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville. At Collins’ request, Gov. Ted Strickland issued a reprieve for Broom, who is scheduled for a Nov. 30 court hearing.

Broom was sentenced to die for the 1984 rape and murder of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton, who was abducted while walking home from a football game.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2264 or tbeyerlein@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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