APNewsBreak: Wash. changes execution method from three-drug cocktail to one-drug injection

APNewsBreak: WA changes execution method

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state has changed its method of execution from a three-drug cocktail to a one-drug system.

State Attorney General Rob McKenna filed paperwork with the state Supreme Court on Tuesday asking it to dismiss portions of an appeal by death-row inmate Darold Stenson. The state argues that the part of the appeal challenging the constitutionality of the drug protocol is moot, since the state made the decision last Thursday to change its policy on execution.

The state Department of Corrections is in the process of rewriting the execution policy that will make Washington state the second in the nation to use the one-drug method.

Ohio became the first in January following a botched execution in September.