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Ohio Could Have Path to Obtaining Long-Sought Execution Drug
By: Associated Press
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The top lawyer for Ohio’s prison system says the state may have a path to obtaining a long-sought lethal injection drug if it can locate the proper ingredients.
Attorney Stephen Gray suggests in a recently unsealed court deposition that Ohio has listed a compounding pharmacist as a possible source of a barbiturate called pentobarbital. Gray says the pharmacist might be able to supply the drug to Ohio.
The state has been unable to carry out executions on more than two dozen condemned killers because of court challenges to its proposed three-drug method.
Obtaining supplies of pentobarbital could go a long way to breaking the legal deadlock over state executions.
Pentobarbital was Ohio’s preferred lethal drug until U.S. supplies dried up.