Under a new set of regulations filed Friday, Kentucky will switch to a single drug to carry out the execution of condemned inmates. The new regulations allow the state to use either three mgs of the anesthetic sodium thiopental or 5 mgs of pentobarbital, a short-acting barbiturate. Kentucky joins at least seven other states that use one drug for lethal injections. In April, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled state officials had until July 24th to propose any changes, or they would face a trial to defend the three-drug method. A public hearing on the execution proposal is scheduled for September 25th in Frankfort. If the procedure is adopted, the state could resume lethal injections later this year. Governor Steve Beshear has two requests for executions on his desk, one for 56 year old Ralph S. Baze for killing a sheriff and deputy in 1991 and another for six-time convicted killer Robert Foley. The new regulations also allow the state to use two drugs, the anti-seizure medication midazolam, better known as Versed, and hydromorphone, an analgesic known commonly as Dilaudad, if the chemicals used in a single-drug execution are not available seven days before a scheduled injection. Prison officials will have to notify the inmate a week before the execution which method will be used.
