Ohio’s state prison agency said Monday it will use a new cocktail of drugs in the execution of an inmate, the AP reports.
Ronald Phillips of Akron, Ohio, was sentenced to death for raping and killing his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter in 1993. He is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 14.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction does not have enough pentobarbital—the drug Ohio has formerly used for executions—because the producer declined to sell more of the drug for use in executions, Department spokeswoman JoEllen Smith told the AP.
The facility will instead use an intravenous sedative—midazolam—and pain killer—hydromorphone—to execute Phillips, a combination that has not been used in past state executions.
Phillips’ lawyers say he was raped and beaten by his father as a child and should not face the death penalty. Prosecutors say Phillips denied the child-abuse until execution became imminent, the AP reports.
[AP]