Since then, corrections departments have been pressing for alternative drugs to carry out death penalty sentences. A plan by Georgia to use a similar specialty batch of pentobarbital has been put on hold by a federal lawsuit challenging the state prison agency's refusal to identify the compounding pharmacy that provided the drug. Instead, the state will use an intravenous combination of midazolam, a sedative, and hydromorphone, a painkiller, in the Nov. 14 execution of Ronald Phillips of Akron. Compounding pharmacies are under increased scrutiny following last year's meningitis outbreak that killed more than 60 people and sickened hundreds and was linked to contaminated ingredients at the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts. Earlier this month, Missouri Gov. The state has since said it is investigating purchasing pentobarbital from compounding pharmacies. Phillips, a death row inmate who raped and killed his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter, wants... (Associated Press) 
 
 Lawyers for death row inmate Ronald Phillips immediately sued to put off his Nov. 14 execution, saying Ohio delayed the announcement so long it didn't leave enough time to fully investigate the new method.
– Another state is looking for alternatives after running out of the execution drug pentobarbital. Ohio says it doesn't have enough of the drug to execute child killer Ronald Phillips next month so it plans to use the untested combination of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone for the lethal injection, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Pentobarbital's Danish manufacturer banned its sale to prisons in 2011. Other pentobarbital-using states, including Texas, the nation's most prolific executioner, have turned to "compounding pharmacies" that custom-make drugs for their supply. Ohio introduced new execution guidelines earlier this month that allowed it to obtain drugs from such pharmacies, but it was unable to find a suitable supplier. Lawyers for Phillips—who was sentenced to die for the 1993 rape and murder of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter—are suing to delay his November 14 execution, the AP reports. If they fail, the 40-year-old will become the first person in any state to be executed with the two-drug combination.