USA - Oklahoma. Oklahoma changes lethal injection procedures, sets 5 methods for executions.

Oklahoma prisons department changes lethal injection procedures, sets 5 methods for executions. The Oklahoma attorney general's office had notified the state Court of Criminal Appeals on March 17 that it couldn't obtain the sedative pentobarbital and the paralytic agent vecuronium bromide. Those drugs, along with potassium chloride, which stops the heart, had been Oklahoma's execution-drug mixture. Now the protocols include a megadose of pentobarbital by itself, or the combination of midazolam and hydromorphone. Another allowed drug combo is midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride - which has never been used in an execution in the U.S.. The new protocols give the state a larger "veil of secrecy" that the inmates have been fighting against, said Seth Day, among the lawyers representing 2 Oklahoma inmates challenging the state's refusal to reveal where it obtains its execution drugs. "The warden could choose at the last minute to use option 5 instead of option 1, and they would have no obligation to inform the inmates or their lawyers," Day said. They also said it would allow drugs from unnamed companies, including compounding pharmacies that face less scrutiny from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration than traditional drug makers. Under Oklahoma's new protocols, the state is allowed to use, in addition to midazolam with hydromorphone, sodium thiopental as a potential substitute for pentobarbital in a 3-drug combination. The protocols also state that even if a sedative kills the inmates on its own, the execution team should follow the new guidelines and inject the other lethal drugs into the inmate's body.