A death row inmate’s challenge to Florida’s planned use of a replacement drug in executions was rejected Wednesday by a state judge, who concluded that the new lethal injection drug would not result in needless pain and suffering.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola joined other judges around the country in finding that the barbiturate pentobarbital is suitable to render a condemned inmate unconscious before two other fatal drugs are administered. Pentobarbital, marketed under the name Nembutal, is replacing a drug whose sole U.S. supplier has stopped making it.
