08 November 2013 :

Secretary of Public Safety Frank Perry has approved a single-drug protocol for carrying out lethal injections. The new rules say prison officials will inject into the condemned prisoner a short-acting barbiturate such as pentobarbital. Previous rules directed a 3-drug method - using sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride in succession.
The news caught a lot of people off guard because of a new law passed earlier this year.
In the past, the Council of State would have to vote on any changes to the Protocol of Executions. However, this year, Republicans passed a bill letting the head of the Department of Public Safety, which means they can modify it essentially in secret.
The new state law gives the Secretary of Public Safety discretion to make changes unilaterally. The state has had a defacto moratorium on executions since 2006. Most people we've talked to think this won't have much of an effect on that. However, if and when, the execution floodgates open, there are 151 people sitting on death row here in North Carolina. The change is important because lawyers for some North Carolina prisoners argue the three-drug method constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. They cite attorneys who witnessed the bodies of executed prisoners convulsing and jerking shortly before the death. They also said any execution protocols must go through the regular rule-making process within state government. The state disagreed.
A Superior Court judge rejected the prisoners' arguments, which then went to the state Court of Appeals. The appeals court granted late last week a request by attorneys for the state and some death-row prisoners to delay oral arguments set for Wednesday so they can have time to examine the new rules.
The next step in the case now won't come before early December.