Legal challenges of new Ohio execution drug likely Prison officials said they expect to announce a new lethal injection drug by Friday after the supply of pentobarbital expired Monday.

Ohio's imminent announcement of a new lethal injection drug is likely to be followed by legal challenges, if past experience in the state and across the country is any judge.

That same experience also suggests Ohio would likely prevail over the long term, but not before executions might be put on hold for a while.

The state is switching drugs because its supply of the drug used most recently in Ohio, the sedative pentobarbital, expired Monday. Additional supplies aren't available because the drug's manufacturer has put it off limits for use in executions.

Time and again, the state's introduction of a new drug or execution process "has given rise to new allegations and often new pleading" in death penalty cases, almost always followed by counterchallenges, federal judge Gregory Frost noted in August after the state said it would likely announce its new drug by Friday.

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