LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — On the heels of two states switching to a single-drug execution method, a defense attorney representing multiple Kentucky death row inmates wants a judge to consider if the state’s three-drug protocol is unconstitutionally cruel.
Public defender David Barron said Ohio’s successful use of one dose of sodium thiopental to execute inmates is proof that there are safer, quicker and less painful methods of carrying out a death sentence. If Barron is successful, Kentucky could be forced to switch to a one-drug execution method.
Barron filed suit in Franklin Circuit Court on Friday, asking Judge Phillip Shepherd to reopen an ongoing challenge to Kentucky’s method and consider forcing the state to put a one-drug execution protocol in place.
Ohio and Washington are the only two states to use one drug to execute condemned inmates.
