Kentucky releases plan for execution procedure

Kentucky released its execution protocols for the 1st time Wednesday, and the public and legislators will get a chance to comment on the rules next year.

It's ultimately up to Gov. Steve Beshear to readopt the procedure or any changes.

The protocol covers a variety of areas, ranging from how quickly an inmate must become unconscious to when a coroner and physician are called in to certify death.

After fighting for several years to keep the protocol secret, the state released it just weeks after the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that it hadn't been properly adopted. The court barred any executions until the method was redone.

The ruling didn't challenge the technique, which is used by dozens of other states and has passed U.S. Supreme Court scrutiny in a case brought by Kentucky death row inmate Ralph Baze.

The protocol will be opened to public comment in January. Various legislative committees then review it before it goes to the governor for approval. It couldn't take effect before next May.

The release of the protocol comes less than a week after Ohio used an overdose of 1 drug on convicted killer Kenneth Biros the 1st 1-drug execution in the United States.

Parts of Kentucky's 74-page protocol have previously been made public, including the 3 drugs used to execute an inmate sodium thiopental, a fast-acting sedative; pancuronium bromide, which causes paralysis; and potassium chloride, which causes cardiac arrest.

Details made public for the 1st time include:

- A coroner and physician are nearby to certify death. The coroner checks the inmate's pupils and pulse and the physician certifies the cause of death. Neither is in the execution chamber.

- If an inmate is conscious after 60 seconds during a lethal injection, the warden must stop the procedure and order that a backup IV be used in another site on the inmate's body.

- If an inmate has not died after 10 minutes during a lethal injection or 2 minutes during an electrocution, a second dose of drugs or jolt of electricity is administered.

- Members of the execution team must be a phlebotomist, a person trained to draw blood, emergency medical technician, paramedic or military corpsman or combat medic and have at least 1 year of professional experience.

- Each execution costs the Department of Corrections $17,000.

Courts around the country have split over whether states should have to follow administrative regulation procedures in adopting a lethal injection protocol. Maryland, Nebraska and California have found that the requirement applies to lethal injection, while courts in Missouri and Tennessee ruled that it doesn't.

California is undergoing a process similar to Kentucky's and recently received public comment. Its execution method must still be approved by a federal judge, who stopped all executions there until officials eliminated deficiencies found in the original process.

Kentucky's three-drug protocol also is under attack in federal court by 5 inmates. They are challenging the protocol, the practice of giving Valium to inmates before an execution and how the state acquires the drugs used.

Kentucky has 35 death row inmates. The state has executed 3 men since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, most recently in November 2008.

Source: Associated Press, December 16, 2009

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