Restraints are shown on the lethal injection table in the execution chamber at the Utah State Correctional Facility on Aug. 8, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo | Rick Bowmer, Pool)
Rat poison, drain cleaner and Diet Pepsi were all tossed out — some repeatedly — as ways Montana could get around a decade-old court ruling that found none of the current drugs available for lethal injections met with the legal standards of Montana, which requires “ultra-fast acting” drugs for death.
Montana Rep. Shannon Maness, R-Dillon, carrying House Bill 205, is proposing that Montana could maneuver around the court decision by changing the wording of the law, striking the requirement that the drug or drugs administered be “ultra-fast acting,” providing instead that the injection would simply cause death…