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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky judge has expressed concerns about the state's plan to use two drugs to carry out lethal injections after the same method resulted in problems in neighboring Ohio.
The issues raised Wednesday by Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd could further delay Kentucky's ability to carry out death sentences and prolong the decade-long legal fight over how the state puts condemned inmates to death.
Shepherd told attorneys during a brief hearing in Frankfort that he may set a hearing about the state's proposal but didn't immediately set a date.
Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire repeatedly gasped and snorted and took 26 minutes to die during an execution in January.
Kentucky is seeking to implement both one- and two-drug lethal injection methods. Shepherd halted all executions in the state in 2010.
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