What Drug Does South Dakota Use for Lethal Injection Death Penalty Cases?
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - South Dakota's Corrections Department is refusing to disclose the specific lethal injection drug it will use to execute convicted prison guard killer Rodney Berget.
A department spokesman says the disclosure could tend to identify the supplier of the execution drug, which state law makes confidential. Lawmakers in 2013 approved the protections shielding the identities of drug suppliers.
Corrections Secretary Denny Kaemingk says the department plans to use a "one-drug protocol," which policy dictates would involve lethal doses of either sodium thiopental or pentobarbital. Kaemingk says the department has the drugs to execute Berget.
Berget is scheduled to be executed between Oct. 28 and Nov. 3 for the 2011 killing of Ronald "R.J." Johnson in a failed prison escape attempt. South Dakota used pentobarbital for its last two executions in 2012.
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