Johnnie Baston, a man convicted of killing a Toledo store owner, became the first person executed in Ohio with a drug that is often used to euthanize pets and other animals.
Baston, 37, died at 10:30 a.m. local time on Thursday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, according to JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Baston, who was convicted of the 1994 killing of Chong Mah, is the ninth person executed in the U.S. in 2011.
Lethal injection executions in Ohio have previously used sodium thiopental. But Hospira Inc. of Illinois said in January it would stop making the drug altogether after Italy, where it planned to move production, objected because the European Union has banned the death penalty.
So Ohio is now using pentobarbital, a barbiturate, according to Smith.
Good Enough for Fido...
Well done Ohio.