14 February 2018 :

Indiana Supreme Court rules state may use Brevital in lethal injection cocktail. The Indiana Supreme Court gave the state the OK Tuesday to use a new drug cocktail in lethal injections. The decision overturns a ruling in June by the Indiana Court of Appeals, which found that officials violated the Indiana Administrative Rules and Procedures Act (INAPRA) when they selected a new drug cocktail of Brevital (generic name methohexital), pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride the state was proposing to use. The case was brought by Roy Lee Ward, 44, who was sentenced to death in December 2002 for the rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne. Ward was originally scheduled for execution in May 2013, but received a stay from a federal judge. As part of its ruling granting Ward’s request for an injunction, the Court of Appeals noted that no inmate in the United States has ever been executed with Brevital. On Tuesday, the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the appeals court’s ruling in a unanimous decision. In its ruling, the court said that, since the decision to use Brevital “does not carry the effect of law,” officials did not need to follow INAPRA. The decision could clear the way for Indiana to resume executions. The state last put an inmate to death on Dec. 12, 2009, when Matthew Eric Wrinkles was killed by lethal injection. Even with the OK from the Indiana Supreme Court, though, Indiana may struggle to actually obtain the drugs for use in lethal injections. Par Pharmaceutical, which manufactures Brevital, announced in May 2014 – shortly after Indiana selected Brevital for its lethal injection cocktail – that it would try to block efforts to use its drug in executions, saying the drug is “intended to be used as an anesthetic in life-sustaining procedures.”