Kentucky officials are set to hold a public hearing on a new proposal for the execution method for condemned inmates. The Justice Cabinet will hear comments from attorneys, advocates and the public starting at 9 a.m. EDT Tuesday at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet building in Frankfort.
The new regulations allow the state to use the anesthetic sodium thiopental or pentobarbital, a short-acting barbiturate.
In making the move, Kentucky joins at least seven other states that use one drug for lethal injections and attempts to comply with a judge's order requiring the state to switch or face a trial to defend the three-drug method.
A state judge invalidated the older, three-drug method in a lawsuit brought by inmates.