Virginia’s Department of Corrections has approved a controversial sedative, as part of its lethal injection protocol, amid difficulties carrying out executions. The drug includes one of the chemicals used in an Ohio execution last month that prompted a lawsuit after it took over 20 minutes for the inmate to die. Virginia law allows death-row inmates to choose between lethal injection and electrocution but makes lethal injection the default execution method when prisoners don’t make a choice. Earlier this month, a floor vote on legislation that would make the electric chair the default method of execution in Virginia was halted. Members decided instead to send the bill to the Senate Courts of Justice Committee.
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