19 December 2010 :
John David Duty, 58, white, was executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary using a drug combination that includes Pentobarbital, a sedative commonly used to euthanize animals, after a nationwide shortage of a key ingredient forced the state to tinker with the usual formula. Duty is the first person in the United States whose execution included the use of pentobarbital. Duty was convicted of the Dec. 19, 2001, killing of 22-year-old Curtis Wise, who was Duty's cellmate at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Wise was strangled with shoelaces. At the time, Duty was serving three life sentences for rape, robbery and shooting with intent to kill, all dating from 1978. Duty pleaded guilty to the murder of Curtis Wise during the 2002 court proceedings. He waived the presentation of mitigating evidence during his sentencing and even requested to be sentenced to death, saying that he would rather die than spend the rest of his life in prison spending 23 out of 24 hours a day on lock-down. However, Duty later appealed his death sentence, first to state appeals courts and then to federal courts. All appeals failed. Duty’s last appeal, which was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 4, argued that the state’s execution protocol is unconstitutional due to plans to substitute sodium thiopental with pentobarbital. Duty and 2 other death-row inmates had challenged the state's decision to use pentobarbital, arguing it could be inhumane because a person could be paralyzed but still aware when a painful 3rd drug is administered to stop the heart. On Tuesday (see) , the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling against the other 2 inmates. Duty did not take part in the appeal. Several states have been scrambling since Hospira Inc. — the only U.S. manufacturer of the barbiturate normally used in executions — said new batches of sodium thiopental could be available "in the first quarter" of next year. Oklahoma obtained a dose of sodium thiopental from Arkansas for its last execution in October, but couldn't secure any more, said Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie. Executions have been delayed in California, Arkansas, Tennessee and Maryland as a result of protocol changes, including the use of new drugs. But Oklahoma's law calls for the use of a fast-acting barbiturate to be administered 1st, which gave the state the flexibility to use pentobarbital, Massie said. Oklahoma is the only state where this issue has come to a head over a new drug. The other states that haven't been able to do it, it's because the state courts wanted more time to review the overall protocol changes. Experts testified at a November federal court hearing that no other U.S. state uses pentobarbital during executions. Duty becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma and the 94th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1990. Duty becomes the 46th inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1234th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin, 16/12/2010)
