Ohio to use new execution method

LUCASVILLE, Ohio, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Ohio prison authorities say they will use a new method of lethal injection on a convicted killer next week, becoming the first in the nation to do so.

Instead of using a series of three drugs to execute inmates, authorities said they will use a method that consists of a large, lethal dose of just one drug, WHIO-TV, Dayton, Ohio, reported Tuesday.

The three-drug injection, used since Ohio reinstated the death penalty in 1999, first sedates the inmate then stops the lungs and heart.

Prison officials, admitting Ohio will be the first state to use the new regimen, said the one-drug method is both humane and effective. Critics, however, call it experimental.

The new method uses a single dose of the anesthetic sodium thiopental injected into a vein, WYTV-TV, Youngstown, Ohio, reported. A two-drug painkiller injection into the inmate's thigh muscle would be available as a backup.

The courts will decide if the execution of convicted killer Kenneth Biros can proceed next week at the Lucasville Correctional Facility using the new method of lethal injection, WHIO said.

"Our experts that we talk to believe this is no more painful than establishing an IV site," said Julie Walburn of the Ohio Department of Corrections. "The inter-muscular is similar to a flu shot injection."