On March 2, Washington became the sec­ond state to switch its lethal injec­tion method from the three-drug cock­tail used in almost all states to a one-drug pro­to­col. Ohio was the first state to change to the sin­gle-drug pro­to­col after the failed exe­cu­tion attempt involv­ing Romell Broom. Broom was ulti­mate­ly removed from the exe­cu­tion cham­ber when the cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers were unable to com­plete the exe­cu­tion. In Washington, the one-drug pro­to­col will be the pre­sumed method, but the three-drug pro­to­col remains an option for inmates who request it. Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, who filed the new pol­i­cy with the state Supreme Court, also asked the court to dis­miss por­tions of death-row inmate Darold Stenson’s appeal chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure. The state sup­port­ed the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of its three-drug pro­to­col but made the switch because ​“the one drug pro­to­col is sim­pler… to admin­is­ter, and it no longer embroils the depart­ment in the legal chal­lenges to the three-drug pro­to­col,” accord­ing to Dick Morgan, pris­ons direc­tor for the state Department of Corrections.

The state is still in the process of writ­ing the new exe­cu­tion pol­i­cy. In addi­tion to the two lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols, Washington inmates may also opt for hang­ing. The last hang­ing in the state was of Charles Campbell in 1994. Washington’s last exe­cu­tion was in 2001, of James Elledge by lethal injection.

(R. La Corte, ​“WA changes exe­cu­tion method,” Associated Press at SeattlePi​.com, March 2, 2010). See also Methods of Execution and Lethal Injection.

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