08 January 2017 :

Florida Changes Lethal Injection Drugs. State corrections officials have adopted a new lethal-injection procedure that includes a drug never before used for executions (etomidate) and another used only by accident (potassium acetate). In its new protocol, Florida is substituting etomidate for midazolam as the critical first drug. Etomidate, also known by its brand name "Amidate", has never been used before as part of the 3-drug execution procedure in the U.S. The third drug would be potassium acetate, that has been used only once - when Oklahoma executioners used it (they say by accident) to kill Charles Frederick Warner on January 15, 2015. The move is almost certain to spur more litigation over the state's already-embattled death penalty, in limbo for nearly a year in the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last January that struck down as unconstitutional Florida's capital sentencing system because it gave too much power to judges, instead of juries. The Department of Corrections posted the revised 3-drug lethal injection protocol on its website on Jan. 5, a day after Secretary Julie Jones signed the new procedure. The News Service of Florida first reported in December that the corrections agency may be considering a new drug protocol, based on records related to a lawsuit filed by Arizona death row inmates. The records revealed that Florida has run out of the sedative midazolam hydrochloride, will soon run out of potassium chloride --- the final drug in the triple-drug lethal injection cocktail - and spent $12,000 last year stockpiling 3 new drugs.