The Latest: Court weighs debate over Ohio execution process


              FILE – In this November 2005 file photo, Larry Greene, public information director of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, demonstrates how a curtain is pulled between the death chamber and witness room at the prison in Lucasville, Ohio. Legal arguments over the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection process, and specifically the effectiveness of the sedative midazolam, are set to be heard by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017, in Cincinnati, months before the state hopes to start carrying out executions again. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)
FILE – In this November 2005 file photo, Larry Greene, public information director of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, demonstrates how a curtain is pulled between the death chamber and witness room at the prison in Lucasville, Ohio. Legal arguments over the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection process, and specifically the effectiveness of the sedative midazolam, are set to be heard by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017, in Cincinnati, months before the state hopes to start carrying out executions again. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Latest on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection system (all times local):

9:45 a.m.

A federal appeals court is weighing arguments over the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection process as the state tries to start carrying out executions once again.

State attorneys say they've provided plenty of evidence to show that the contested first drug in Ohio's three-drug method will put inmates into a deep state of unconsciousness.

The state also argues that the U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld the use of that drug, midazolam (mih-DAY'-zoh-lam), in a case out of Oklahoma.

Lawyers for death row inmates are challenging the effectiveness of midazolam.

Arguments scheduled for Tuesday before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati have been rescheduled for March 7.

Ohio is appealing a federal judge's decision that rejected the state's current three-drug execution method.

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12:35 a.m.

A federal appeals court is hearing arguments over the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection process as the state tries to start carrying out executions once again.

State attorneys say they've provided plenty of evidence to show that the contested first drug in Ohio's three-drug method will put inmates into a deep state of unconsciousness.

The state also argues that the U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld the use of that drug, midazolam (mih-DAY'-zoh-lam), in a case out of Oklahoma.

Lawyers for death row inmates are challenging the effectiveness of midazolam.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati scheduled arguments Tuesday.

Ohio is appealing a federal judge's decision that rejected the state's current three-drug execution method.

Ohio plans to execute condemned child killer Ronald Phillips on May 10.

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