{Louisville, Kentucky}...Wednesday, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ordered the state to consider changing how it executes prisoners by lethal injection, saying it should look into using one drug instead of three. Judge Shepherd wrote that the state's three-drug method may no longer be necessary now that other states have successfully used a single drug to execute condemned inmates. The ruling comes 20 months after Shepherd halted all executions in the state after inmates challenged the three-drug method. The order gives Kentucky 90 days to study the changes. If the state sticks with a three-drug method, Shepherd wrote, the challenge by the inmates will be allowed to go to trial.
