Convict in South Dakota wants to pick drug for his execution

Convict in South Dakota wants to pick drugs for his execution. A convict scheduled to be executed next month in South Dakota for a 1992 fatal stabbing is taking issue with the state’s choice of the drug that will take his life. Charles Russell Rhines is asking the state to follow the law on lethal injections at the time he was sentenced to death in 1993 when a protocol of an ultra-short-acting lethal drug and a chemical paralytic were used. The Argus Leader reports the state intends to use pentobarbital, commonly used to euthanize animals. In a complaint filed this week in court, Rhines is asking a judge to stop the execution until his request is decided. The 63-year-old Rhines was convicted of killing 22-year-old Donnivan Schaeffer while burglarizing a Rapid City doughnut shop in 1992.