USA - Kentucky. Kentucky drops 2-drug executions.

Kentucky drops 2-drug executions. Kentucky is dropping its proposed use of a 2-drug execution method after the prolonged deaths of inmates in 2 other states that used a similar means to carry out death sentences. In a filing yesterday in Franklin Circuit Court, prosecutors cited "recent events in other states" as the reason for seeking to rewrite the regulations over the next 6 months. The move came just less than 2 months after Judge Phillip Shepherd ordered the state to be prepared to explain how and why it chose the 2-drug method and the doses proposed. Kentucky, which modeled its execution process on Ohio's, proposed using compounded drugs and of using midazolam and hydromorphone. 2 states have used midazolam in a 2-drug protocol: Ohio and Arizona. Both of their executions in 2014 were prolonged, accompanied by the inmates' gasping. Jennifer Brislin, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, said the experience of Ohio and Arizona left questions about the effectiveness of the drug combination. "The Commonwealth of Kentucky will not take any risks with its protocols for lethal injection; therefore, we are going to eliminate this methodology from our regulations," Brislin said. It wasn't immediately clear today if Kentucky is the 1st state to drop the 2-drug concept without having used it first. Richard Dieter, head of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., said other states including Oklahoma and Louisiana have 2-drug methods on the books, but haven't used them and, given what happened in Ohio and Arizona, are unlikely to in the future. "I also think Ohio and Arizona will abandon it, having used it with bad results," Dieter said. Executions in Kentucky have been on hold since 2010 when Judge Shepherd took issue with how executions were handled. Kentucky has executed 3 inmates since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, with the last execution in 2008.