[DiamondSmiles]

October 28, 2013

By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Associated Press

The state will use an intravenous combination of midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller, in the November 14 execution of Ronald Phillips of Akron.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio will use a dose of two drugs never tried before in a U.S. execution to put to death a condemned inmate who raped and killed his girlfriend's 3 year old daughter, the state prisons agency said Monday.

The agency made the decision because it couldn't obtain a supply of its former execution drug, pentobarbital, from a specialty pharmacy that mixes individual doses for patients, prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said. The agency had considered using a compounding pharmacy after its supply of federally regulated pentobarbital expired last month.

Instead, the state will use an intravenous combination of midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller, in the November 14 execution of Ronald Phillips of Akron.

Those drugs already are included in Ohio's untested backup execution method, which requires them to be injected directly into an inmate's muscle. No state has put a prisoner to death with those drugs in any fashion.

Phillips, 40, was sentenced to death for killing Sheila Marie Evans in 1993 after a long period of abusing her.

Attorneys for Phillips filed documents in federal court Friday asking a judge to let them expand a current lawsuit to challenge the use of compounded pentobarbital. Now that that option off the table, an updated complaint is expected soon.

The Friday filing also challenged the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's decision to allow its director to delegate responsibilities for some execution duties. Phillips' lawyers say that breaks an agreement the agency made previously with approval by federal Judge Gregory Frost.

Ohio's revamped execution policy calls for it to try to buy specialty batches of pentobarbital from compounding pharmacies, which mix individual doses of drugs for specific patients. If that fails, the policy calls for the use of the two-drug approach.

A plan by Georgia to use a similar specialty batch of pentobarbital has been put on hold by a federal lawsuit challenging the state prison agency's refusal to identify the compounding pharmacy that provided the drug.

The lawsuit also questions the drug's safety and effectiveness.

Compounding pharmacies are under increased scrutiny following last year's meningitis outbreak that killed more than 60 people and sickened hundreds and was linked to contaminated ingredients at the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts.

Phillips' lawyers have pushed for mercy for Phillips, arguing he was raped and beaten by his late father as a child and grew up in a chaotic, filthy environment.

The state says Phillips long denied suffering such abuse and raised it only as his execution became imminent.

This undated photo released by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction shows Ronald Phillips. AP

[spycosis]

Hydromorphone .... the lucky bastard is gonna die in ecstasy. They could better give him a bullet than that. He doesn't deserve the pleasure of a beautiful death.

[Azimuth]

Originally Posted by spycosis ↗

Hydromorphone .... the lucky bastard is gonna die in ecstasy. They could better give him a bullet than that. He doesn't deserve the pleasure of a beautiful death.

Fucking A. I'd take the Dilaudid od without the sedation beforehand. Dat warm flush. Whooph.

[DRZrider]

throw him in a fucking volcano

[Megamel29]

Cry me a river. If he hadn't waited on death row so damn long the drug wouldn't have expired before they could kill him. He killed an innocent child. I'm not concerned about his comfort.

[petedeamon]

Injection of lye...He's not worth the ceremony of the execution process. I wonder what has kept the other prisoners from skinning him alive?

[Arkoquisa]

he gets to blissfully go out on dillies... Fuck that shoot him in the groin, throw him into the ocean, and let him bleed out and become fish shit.

[IC10021]

....requires them to be injected directly into an inmate's muscle. No state has put a prisoner to death with those drugs in any fashion...

--> anyone hazard a guess how long it would take someone to die under these circumstances?

--> any one care to speculate what outcome might be observed here when using only two drugs, without a paralytic? Isn't a paralytic usually the third drug?

--> if omitting the paralytic is intentional, why is it being omitted?

tx

-- ic

[Spiffyfable]

Times... A Ticking...

Please post an Update if You Remember

[rapeWhistle]

How about injecting that POS with hydrochloric acid... a gallon of it. Slowly!