Untested lethal cocktail to be used in November execution

Prison officials in Summit County, Ohio will be using an untried combination of drugs for the execution of Ronald Phillips scheduled on November 14.

Ohio uses pentobarbital for its lethal injections, but a warden at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility determined that there is an insufficient quantity for Phillips' execution and additional stock couldn't be obtained from the specialty pharmacy.

In place of pentobarbital, a backup combination of midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, an opiate painkiller, will be administered to Phillips intravenously.

After a failed execution using sodium thiopental in September 2009, Ohio allowed this combination to be used in the state, although it has never been administered. Midazolam has only been used alone in Florida state, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Many manufacturers now refuse to allow their drugs to be used for lethal injections.

Now pentobarbital are provided by compounding pharmacies, which produce drugs for specific clients. Difficulty in obtaining pentobarbital has prompted Ohio prison to employ this backup cocktail for executions.

Ronald Phillips, now 40, was sentenced to death in 1993 for raping and killing Sheila Marie Evans, his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter.

Phillips' lawyers are now pressing to delay his execution on the grounds that the cocktail of midazolam and hydromorphone has not been previously tested.

When used in combination, opiate painkillers and sedatives can induce respiratory depression. These drugs target the brain stem, which regulates breathing and other respiratory responses. Accumulated carbon dioxide causes acidosis, leading to death.

A cocktail of a barbituate, paralytic, and potassium solution is most widely used lethal injection in the United States.