toledoblade.com --

COLUMBUS — Ohio became the first state Friday to adopt a one-drug method of execution, essentially overdosing inmates with a sedative.

Terry Collins, director of the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, also announced that the state will employ a back-up method of injecting drugs directly into a muscle when medical technicians can't find useable veins.

The reworking of the lethal-injection protocol follows the highly publicized failed execution of Romell Broom on Sept. 15 when the execution team struggled for two hours to insert intravenous shunts used to administer a cocktail of three drugs.

Gov. Ted Strickland took the unprecedented step of stopping Broom's execution two hours into the process. When it proceeds smoothly, lethal injection usually lasts about 15 minutes.

Mr. Collins has ordered the new procedure to be in place by the end of the month.

"The adoption of the new execution protocol will not only simplify the execution process but will also ensure that the execution team will be able to address any rare and exceptional circumstances," he said.

In an unofficial moratorium, Governor Strickland had ordered temporary reprieves of several months for two inmates who were scheduled to follow Broom to the execution chamber in October and November while the internal review took place.

A federal court judge considering Broom's challenge to another execution attempt has since continued the unofficial moratorium by issuing a stay for a third inmate who had been scheduled to die next month. U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Frost is considering Broom's argument that having a prison medical technician team repeatedly insert needles into him again in search of useable veins violates his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment.

Mr. Collins filed an affidavit with the court Friday explaining the new procedure. Mr. Collins, however, said he would not be surprised that these substantial changes in the state's execution process will be tested in a new round of litigation.

"I can't say that for sure, but I'm sure somebody out there will file something," he said.

Previously, Ohio used three drugs in succession to execute an inmate. The first, thiopental sodium, serves as a sedative to render the inmate unconscious. It was then followed by panacuronium bromide that paralyzes the lungs and potassium chloride to stop the heart.

Critics of the process had argued that the second two drugs could lead to severe distress and pain for the condemned if the first failed to fully do its job. The new protocol eliminates the second two drugs in favor of 5 grams of the first, more than double the prior amount used.

If, as in the Broom case, the execution team can't tap a useable vein, the team would have the option after consultation with Collins to switch to a backup. That would involve injection of midazolam and hydromorphine, basically an overdose of a sedative and pain killer.

Barring a court ruling that puts Broom or one of the other cases back on track, the next execution would be that of Vernon L. Smith, 37, formerly of Toledo, who is scheduled to die Jan. 7 for the 1993 robbery and murder of central Toledo carry-out owner Sohail Darwish.

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