On December 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reject­ed a claim by Oklahoma death row inmate Jeffrey Matthews that the use of the drug pen­to­bar­bi­tal could result in a cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. The Court unan­i­mous­ly con­clud­ed that the amount of pen­to­bar­bi­tal author­i­ties plan to use, as the first in a three-drug pro­ce­dure, would like­ly be lethal by itself. The deci­sion also allows the exe­cu­tion of John David Duty, sched­uled for December 16, to pro­ceed. Duty would be the first death row inmate in the coun­try to be exe­cut­ed using this new drug as part of a three-drug pro­to­col. Earlier this year, a short­age of sodi­um thiopen­tal from the nation’s sole man­u­fac­tur­er forced cor­rec­tions depart­ments around the coun­try to seek alter­na­tives for their lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures. (Matthews’ exe­cu­tion date was set for Jan. 11, 2011.) 

While Oklahoma pro­posed replac­ing sodi­um thiopen­tal with pen­to­bar­bi­tal, oth­er states, such as Arizona and California, obtained the anes­thet­ic from Great Britain. In Texas, the Attorney General has ruled that the source of the state’s lethal injec­tion drugs should be made pub­lic. Texas report­ed­ly has suf­fi­cient quan­ti­ties of sodi­um thiopen­tal for 39 exe­cu­tions, but the sup­ply has an expi­ra­tion date in March 2011. Following a botched-exe­cu­tion attempt in Ohio, the state changed from a three-drug method to a one-drug method – a lethal dose of sodi­um thiopen­tal. Washington has also adopt­ed this method. So far, 10 exe­cu­tions have been car­ried out using the one-drug pro­to­col. Pentobarbital has been used in the euthana­sia of ani­mals, but not as part of the 3‑drug pro­to­col planned by Oklahoma. That pro­ce­dure is banned by many vet­eri­nar­i­an asso­ci­a­tions, includ­ing in Oklahoma.

(R. Boczkiewicz, ​“Appeals court rejects con­vict­ed killer’s chal­lenge to Oklahoma exe­cu­tion method,” The Oklahoman, December 15, 2010; DPIC research). See Lethal Injection.

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