(CNN) A Georgia inmate is asking to be executed by a firing squad because he says lethal injection would be too painful for him.
Convicted murderer J.W. Ledford Jr. takes a pain medication, gabapentin, that changed his brain chemistry so much the lethal injection drug pentobarbital might not make him unconscious and would cause him “to suffer an excruciating death,” according to documents filed by his lawyer in US District Court.
“Mr. Ledford proposes that the firing squad is a readily implemented and more reliable alternative method of execution that would eliminate the risks posed to him by lethal injection,” his lawyers said in court papers filed Thursday.
