Alabama and Virginia have proposed it as part of a three-drug protocol.Įxecutions have been on hold in Ohio since January 2014, when Dennis McGuire gasped and snorted during the 26 minutes it took him to die, the longest execution since the state resumed putting prisoners to death in 1999. Ohio appears to be the first state using midazolam as a lethal drug to seek a reversal drug for it, according to experts at the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, Berkeley Law School’s Death Penalty Clinic and Reprieve, a London-based human rights organization that tracks capital punishment issues.įlorida and Oklahoma have used midazolam as the first in a three-drug protocol. Magistrate Judge Michael Merz is weighing a challenge to this method’s constitutionality, following a weeklong hearing. Midazolam is the first drug in Ohio’s new three-drug execution method. Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith declined to comment Thursday on Mohr’s testimony, a copy of which was reviewed by The Associated Press.įlumazenil is used to reverse the effects of a sedative called midazolam when that drug causes bad reactions in patients. Mohr testified that Ohio planned to order the drug, flumazenil, but didn’t currently have it. I want to reverse the effects of this,” Mohr testified, describing the language he would use in such a circumstance. “Governor, I am not confident that we, in fact, can achieve a successful execution. John Kasich and ask for a reprieve at that point. Mohr said he would inform Republican Gov. The request to use the drug would come if executioners weren’t confident the first of three lethal drugs would render a prisoner unconscious, Gary Mohr, director of the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said in federal court testimony Jan. COLUMBUS, OHIO-Ohio’s prisons agency is trying to obtain a drug that could reverse the lethal injection process if needed by stopping the effects of another drug previously used in problematic executions.
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