Utah officials racing to get proven lethal injection drug just weeks before planned execution

With three weeks to go until Taberon Honie’s scheduled execution, state officials are scrambling to get a different drug for the lethal injection — an attempt, it seems, to abandon their original plan to kill the death row inmate with an untested three-drug combination.

Honie sued prison officials last week, challenging the state’s initial plan to execute him on Aug. 8 using the combination of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride.

His attorney, Eric Zuckerman, raised questions about whether the never-before-used drug combination would cause Honie unnecessary pain, which would violate the state’s Constitution by subjecting him to cruel and unusual punishment. They’ve asked 3rd District Judge Laura Jones to stop the state from executing him using those three drugs.

But during a Wednesday scheduling conference, a lawyer with the Utah attorney general’s office told Jones that state officials are working to purchase a different drug for the execution: pentobarbital.

It’s been used in executions in other states, and Zuckerman identified it in the new lawsuit as a possible alternative to the combination of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride. Honie’s attorney noted that pentobarbital — which acts as both the anesthetic to ensure Honie does not feel pain and the fatal drug that would kill him — is the authorized drug to use in executions in at least 10 other states.

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Utah officials racing to get proven lethal injection drug just weeks before planned execution

Utah officials racing to get proven lethal injection drug just weeks before planned execution

Utah officials racing to get proven lethal injection drug just weeks before planned execution

Utah officials racing to get proven lethal injection drug just weeks before planned execution

Utah officials racing to get proven lethal injection drug just weeks before planned execution