For the First Time in USA, 53-year-old convict Mark Asay was Executed using Etomidate in Lethal Injection

• Etomidate was invented by scientists from Janssen Pharmaceuticals
• The reason behind conviction of Mark Asay last year was that in 1988 he racially motivated killing of 2 men in Jacksonville, Florida
• Before he shot Booker, he called him a racial epithet

Florida (USA), August 25, 2017: A 53-year-old convict Mark Asay was executed using a new drug called Etomidate for lethal injection on 24 August 2017. This drug has not been used before in the US.

Mark Asay was executed reportedly and one of the three drugs used for lethal injection was etomidate. It's the first time that in execution they used the drug etomidate.

Earlier midazolam was used for executions but now it is harder to get this drug as some drug manufacturers didn't want it to be used for executions. Now, Etomidate is a substitution for midazolam.

According to CNN report, Greg Panico, spokesman for the company said, "Etomidate, an intravenous anesthetic, was invented by scientists from Janssen Pharmaceuticals in the 1960s

According to WJAX report, "This month, the Florida Supreme Court rejected arguments from Mark Asay's attorneys that the new drug would cause too much pain." Florida's highest court said that the inmate Mark Asay had not shown that it would result in more pain and dismissed a motion to block the execution.

The reason behind conviction of Mark Asay last year was that in 1988 he racially motivated killing of 2 men in Jacksonville, Florida.

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The two men whom the jury found him guilty of murdering were Robert Lee Booker, who was black and Robert McDowell. "Before he shot Booker, he called him a racial epithet. Prosecutors say he killed McDowell, who was dressed as a woman, after saying he would pay him for sex," mentions WJAX report.

"The execution marks Florida's first since The US Supreme Court ruling temporarily halted the practice in early 2016, saying the state's sentencing process was unconstitutional because it gave judges, rather than juries, too much power in deciding whether to execute an inmate," mentions CNN report.

On 24 August 2017, US Supreme Court denied a stay for execution request in Asay's case and it was scheduled that he would die by injection after 6 p.m. EST. It was also revealed that Asay didn't have any pending petitions along with the Florida Supreme Court.

In 1979, the death penalty was reinstituted by the state and since then, Mark James Asay is the first white man to be sentenced for the death penalty in Florida for killing a black man.

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