A prisoner is scheduled to be executed Wednesday afternoon barring last minute stays, the first to die with a new drug in the combination of lethal injection chemicals.
Manuel Valle, 61, is scheduled to be executed at 4 p.m., at Florida State Prison. He is condemned for the 1978 murder of police officer Louis Pena during a traffic stop.
The state earlier this year changed the anesthetic used in the execution process when the previous drug was no longer made.
The new drug, pentobarbital, has been the subject of court challenges about its effectiveness for this particular use. It’s made by a Danish company, Lundbeck, which objects to its use in executions.
