USA - Oklahoma. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Oklahoma can proceed with executions using Pentobarbital.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that Oklahoma can proceed with executions using Pentobarbital. The ruling clears the way for three scheduled executions, one this week and two in January. The court rejected a claim by John David Duty that the drug could cause cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the U.S. Constitution. A panel of the Denver-based court concluded that the amount of pentobarbital that prison authorities plan to inject as the first of three execution drugs would by itself "likely be lethal in most, if not all, instances." The 10-page decision clears the way for the execution of Duty at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, and of Jeffrey Matthews on Jan. 11. Prison authorities said a few months ago that they would start using pentobarbital because there is a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, which has been the 1st of 3 drugs used for executions. Matthews, citing testimony of David Waisel,a medical doctor who is a professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, contended that using pentobarbital as an anesthetic might not work to prevent "severe, excruciating pain" from the subsequent drugs. The appellate judges based their decision in large part on the testimony of the state's witness, Mark Dershwitz, a medical doctor who is a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Massachusetts, who disputed the testimony of Matthews' witness. The judges said the state's witness "has substantially more clinical experience with the use of pentobarbital" than did Matthews' witness. (see also Nov. 9 and 19).