On December 8, 2009, Ohio prison officials conducted the first execution using a new single-drug lethal injection protocol after the drug's approval the month before. The state of Ohio had suspended all executions after botching inmate Romell Broom's lethal injection in September 2009. Prison officials spent two hours trying to find a suitable vein in which to inject Broom with the standard three-drug lethal injection cocktail. The new protocol calls for a single intravenous injection and provides for the intramuscular injection of two more drugs if a vein cannot be found. The US Supreme Court overturned the Sixth Circuit's stay of Brios's execution in November 2009 over his lawyers' objections that use of the new protocol constituted human experimentation. As of November 2011, Ohio is under an unofficial execution moratorium, as the federal courts consider the constitutionality of the state's death penalty procedures.

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