By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Associated Press
LUCASVILLE, Ohio — Ohio has put to death a man who killed a store owner with the country’s first-ever use of pentobarbital as a stand-alone execution drug.
Johnnie Baston was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m. by warden Donald Morgan at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
The 37-year-old Baston was sentenced to die for the shooting of South Korean immigrant Chong-Hoon Mah in a 1994 robbery.
Oklahoma also uses pentobarbital, but in combination with other drugs that paralyze inmates and stop their hearts.