Georgia Considers Execution Drug Switch
ATLANTA --
Georgia corrections officials are laying the groundwork to swap out a key sedative used for lethal injections after federal regulators took the state's stockpile of the drug that is in short supply nationwide.
More than a thousand pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press show Georgia prison officials traveled to two states where a different drug is being used for executions.
State prison officials have prepared lengthy legal files on that drug called pentobarbital. Several states are using it instead of the scarce sodium thiopental.
The Drug Enforcement Administration took Georgia's supply of sodium thiopental in March over questions of whether the state circumvented the law to obtain its supply.
Oklahoma, Texas and Ohio have already switched to pentobarbital. Arizona and Mississippi are also planning a switch.
