USA - Alabama. Alabama this week adopted a new drug protocol for executions by lethal injection

Alabama this week adopted a new drug protocol for executions by lethal injection and began seeking execution dates for nine inmates on death row. Those inmates saw their execution dates indefinitely postponed earlier this year, when state officials ran out of drugs used in executions. Tommy Arthur is one of those inmates. Arthur was originally scheduled for lethal injection in 2012. He filed suit on the grounds that the state had only recently switched to a new lethal injection drug, pentobarbital. 2 other Alabama inmates have similar suits pending. State officials acknowledged in March that Alabama no longer had a supply of pentobarbital - leaving Alabama without the drugs it needed to carry out executions. In motions filed Thursday with the Alabama Supreme Court, state officials say they now have a new drug protocol for executions. Under the protocol, adopted Wednesday, inmates would be injected with midazolam hydrochloride, an anesthetic; rocuronium bromide to relax the muscles; and potassium chloride to induce cardiac arrest. The drug combination is "virtually identical to Florida's newly-revised protocol which has been ruled constitutional," according to the state's motion. The protocol has been used for 7 executions in Florida, the motion states. The state hasn't executed an inmate since July 25, 2013, when Andrew Reid Lackey died by lethal injection.