Prison authorities in the state of Oklahoma had to turn to an array of different drugs to put a death row inmate out of his misery last night. Facing a shortage of traditional drugs used to kill inmates, they turned to a three-drug cocktail including pentobarbital, a drug used to euthanise animals.
The unfortunate recipient of this cocktail was John David Duty, who was sentenced to death after murdering his cell mate back in 2001 with a bed sheet. Duty was already serving two consecutive life sentences for robbery and other serious charges.
Duty’s lawyers had appealed the use of the drug, because it has never been used in America as part of a human execution, but the courts denied the appeal and the sentence was carried out without incident last night.
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