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Ohio succeeds again with one-drug execution protocol

By Douglas A. Berman

The Columbus Dispatch provides this report on another execution in Ohio using the state's new one-drug lethal injection protocol.  Here is how it starts: A Toledo man convicted of fatally shooting a convenience-store owner in 1993 this morning became the second person in the U.S. to be put to death using a single drug.  Vernon Smith, 37, was pronounced dead at 10:28 after Lucasville prison staff administered a fatal dose of thiopental sodium, a powerful anesthetic. He was the second death-row inmate to be put to death with a single drug after Ohio switched from a three-drug system in November.  The change came after a botched execution attempt in October. "I'm sure there are plenty of people across the country who are watching what we're doing today," said state prisons director Terry Collins before the execution.continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 07, 2010 (boomark / email).