http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014460755_execute11.html
By Rob Stein
The Washington Post
Ohio executed an inmate Thursday with one drug, previously used primarily to euthanize animals, marking the first time anyone in the United States had been put to death in that manner.
Johnnie Baston, 37, was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, after receiving an infusion of the drug pentobarbital. His attorney and two brothers witnessed the execution, along with five reporters.
Baston was sentenced to die for killing Chong-Hoon Mah, a South Korean immigrant who was shot in the back of the head. The 53-year-old victim's relatives oppose the death penalty. No members of the Mah family were present Thursday.
The execution comes after capital punishment in the United States was thrown in disarray in January when the only U.S. company that makes a sodium thiopental, which Ohio and most other states long had used in lethal injection, announced it no longer would produce the drug.
The decision by Hospira, of Lake Forest, Ill., was prompted by demands from Italy, which does not have capital punishment, that sodium thiopental — which the company had planned to make at its plant outside Milan — not be used for executions.
The decision forced states and the federal government to scramble for alternatives.
Hospira's announcement was praised by death-penalty opponents for raising new questions about the procedures used for lethal injection. They have seized on the development to challenge further executions. Lawsuits have been filed, for example, claiming some states have imported sodium thiopental illegally.
But the decision was condemned by supporters of capital punishment. Some blasted another country's interference in the U.S. criminal-justice system. Others said further delays in executions would anger the public. Surveys show a majority of U.S. citizens support executions.
Thirty-four states, including Washington, allow for capital punishment. All use lethal injection, and until recently all but two had used a three-drug cocktail: sodium thiopental to render the prisoner unconscious, pancurium bromide to paralyze the prisoner and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Shortages of sodium thiopental began after Hospira stopped making it in August 2009 because of problems obtaining one of the main ingredients, prompting doctors to turn to alternatives and some states to delay executions.
The company had planned to shift production from a plant in North Carolina to a facility in Liscate, Italy. But after those plans became public, the Italian Parliament demanded the company ensure that the drug would be used only for medical purposes.
Oklahoma last year became the first state to switch to another method, replacing sodium thiopental with pentobarbital in its three-drug combination. After winning a court challenge to that decision, the state has executed three inmates since December.
By Rob Stein
The Washington Post
Ohio executed an inmate Thursday with one drug, previously used primarily to euthanize animals, marking the first time anyone in the United States had been put to death in that manner.
Johnnie Baston, 37, was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, after receiving an infusion of the drug pentobarbital. His attorney and two brothers witnessed the execution, along with five reporters.
Baston was sentenced to die for killing Chong-Hoon Mah, a South Korean immigrant who was shot in the back of the head. The 53-year-old victim's relatives oppose the death penalty. No members of the Mah family were present Thursday.
The execution comes after capital punishment in the United States was thrown in disarray in January when the only U.S. company that makes a sodium thiopental, which Ohio and most other states long had used in lethal injection, announced it no longer would produce the drug.
The decision by Hospira, of Lake Forest, Ill., was prompted by demands from Italy, which does not have capital punishment, that sodium thiopental — which the company had planned to make at its plant outside Milan — not be used for executions.
The decision forced states and the federal government to scramble for alternatives.
Hospira's announcement was praised by death-penalty opponents for raising new questions about the procedures used for lethal injection. They have seized on the development to challenge further executions. Lawsuits have been filed, for example, claiming some states have imported sodium thiopental illegally.
But the decision was condemned by supporters of capital punishment. Some blasted another country's interference in the U.S. criminal-justice system. Others said further delays in executions would anger the public. Surveys show a majority of U.S. citizens support executions.
Thirty-four states, including Washington, allow for capital punishment. All use lethal injection, and until recently all but two had used a three-drug cocktail: sodium thiopental to render the prisoner unconscious, pancurium bromide to paralyze the prisoner and potassium chloride to stop the heart.
Shortages of sodium thiopental began after Hospira stopped making it in August 2009 because of problems obtaining one of the main ingredients, prompting doctors to turn to alternatives and some states to delay executions.
The company had planned to shift production from a plant in North Carolina to a facility in Liscate, Italy. But after those plans became public, the Italian Parliament demanded the company ensure that the drug would be used only for medical purposes.
Oklahoma last year became the first state to switch to another method, replacing sodium thiopental with pentobarbital in its three-drug combination. After winning a court challenge to that decision, the state has executed three inmates since December.
