December 16, 2010 5:28 p.m. EST
(CNN) -- An Oklahoma death row inmate will receive a drug
commonly used to euthanize animals Thursday because of a nationwide
shortage of sodium thiopental, the drug usually used as the sedative in
its three-drug execution ********.
John David Duty's execution
will be the last in the United States in 2010 and is believed to be the
first in the country to use pentobarbital in a lethal injection.
Duty
was convicted and sentenced to die for strangling his 22-year-old
cellmate, Curtis Wise, with shoe laces while serving three life
sentences for ****, robbery and shooting with intent to kill from a 1978
conviction.
Duty wrote a letter to Wise's mother in December
2001, admitting to killing Wise and saying, "It's not like the movies,
it took a while."
Sodium thiopental is a rapid-onset,
short-acting barbiturate that causes unconsciousness. Duty's attorneys
argued that pentobarbital was risky and unsafe. But an Oklahoma judge
disagreed and last month approved its use in place of sodium thiopental.
The
sedative is the first drug in Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol. It
is followed by vecuronium bromide, a drug that causes paralysis and
stops breathing. The third drug, potassium chloride, stops the heart.
Pentobarbital is used in a similar manner for animal euthanizations.
Duty's
execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in
McAlester, Oklahoma. For his last meal, Duty has requested a double
cheeseburger with mayonnaise, a foot-long cheese Coney dog with mustard
and extra onions, cherry limeade and a banana shake from Sonic.