Lawyers Fight to Halt Ohio Execution Condemned as Human Experimentation

Lethal injection involves anaesthetic used on pets • Change of method follows previous failures in state

by Ed Pilkington

The death chamber in Lucasville, Ohio. The state opted for the new procedure after a botched attempted execution in September. (Photograph: Kiichiro Sato/AP)

Lawyers acting for a prisoner on death row in Ohio were scrambling to delay his scheduled execution tomorrow morning using a new method of lethal injection that is widely used to put down pets. The procedure has never been tried out on humans and is tantamount, critics say, to human experimentation.

Barring last-minute appeals and stays of execution, Kenneth Biros, 51, will be put to death using a massive overdose of an anaesthetic. It would be the first time that a single-drug lethal injection had been administered, in contrast to the triple-drug cocktail that has become the norm in the 37 American states that have death row prisoners.

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Notice this story is coming from the Guardian/UK. I'll check to see if the U.S. media is covering it. Tom

Update: Ohio inmate becomes 1st to die under 1-drug method.