USA - Washington. Washington switches its lethal injection method to a one-drug protocol

Washington became the second state to switch its lethal injection method from the three-drug cocktail used in almost all states to a one-drug protocol. Ohio was the first state to change to the single-drug protocol after the failed execution attempt involving Romell Broom. In Washington, the one-drug protocol will be the presumed method, but the three-drug protocol remains an option for inmates who request it. Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, who filed the new policy with the state Supreme Court, also asked the court to dismiss portions of death-row inmate Darold Stenson's appeal challenging the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection procedure. The state supported the constitutionality of its three-drug protocol but made the switch because "the one drug protocol is simpler… to administer, and it no longer embroils the department in the legal challenges to the three-drug protocol," according to Dick Morgan, prisons director for the state Department of Corrections.