USA - Delaware. Delaware's new lethal injection procedure will be more secretive than the one used in the past.

Delaware's new lethal injection procedure will be more secretive than the one used in the past, according to court documents unsealed in a class-action lawsuit by death row inmates. Among other things, the new procedure is meant to ensure that a condemned inmate is fully sedated before two lethal chemicals are administered. According to court documents unsealed this week, prison officials will draw a curtain between the execution chamber and the witness room while they determine whether the inmate is unconscious. The curtains will then be reopened before the lethal chemicals are injected. The change is part of the state's effort to win federal court approval of it's execution procedures. After first asserting that Delaware's procedure was more detailed than a Kentucky protocol upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, officials decided instead to embrace some of Kentucky's methods. (see also Kentucky 25/09/2007, 09/04/2008  and following)