pentobarbital

(Newser) - Ohio today became a ground-breaker in how to execute criminals despite the nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental following the discontinuation of the drug by its sole producer : Officials executed a convicted murderer—37-year-old Johnnie Baston—with just one drug, pentobarbital. It's traditionally used to put down dogs, cats, and horses,...

(Newser) - Oklahoma has found a way around the nationwide shortage of a drug used in lethal injections . Convicted murderer John David Duty was put to death yesterday using a cocktail of drugs that included pentobarbital, a sedative typically used to euthanize dogs and cats, Tulsa World reports. He is believed to...

(Newser) - Oklahoma is short on the anesthetic it uses to execute prisoners—so it’s asking a court if it can substitute a drug used to euthanize animals. Several states are dealing with a shortage of sodium thiopental, the only anesthetic yet used in lethal injections; its only manufacturer has shut...