Execution Method Revised

{Louisville, Kentucky}…Kentucky has moved one step closer to resuming executions by sending new rules for lethal injections to lawmakers. The revised regulations specify that doses of the drug used in the one-drug execution, 3 grams of sodium thiopental or 5 grams of pentobarbital, be repeated if the inmate has not died within 10 minutes. In a two-drug execution, the warden may authorize continued injections of 60 milligrams of hydromorphone until the inmate dies if the initial injection is not deadly. Also under the new rules, there will be no specific time limit on an inmate's last words. The warden at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville has the option of shutting off an overhead microphone if the statement is deemed "intentionally offensive" to witnesses or excessive in length. Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd struck down Kentucky's three-drug method more than a year ago and ordered a one-drug process put into place before any more executions would be allowed. Kentucky has executed three people since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976.