Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — A federal appeals court has rejected a convicted killer’s challenge of Oklahoma’s plans to use a different anesthetic in its execution protocol.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld the state’s plans to use pentobarbital because of a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, the sedative normally used. Jeffrey Matthews had appealed a district court ruling in favor of the Department of Corrections.
The court said state witness Dr. Mark Dershwitz “persuasively characterized” the plan to use a 5,000 milligram dose of pentobarbital as an enormous overdose that alone likely would be fatal.
Matthews was convicted of killing his great-uncle in McClain County in 1994. An execution date has not been set for Matthews. Another death row inmate is scheduled to be executed on Thursday in Oklahoma.