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The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that the state improperly adopted its lethal injection protocol and must readopt procedures to administer the three-drug cocktail used to execute condemned inmates.

The ruling comes in a challenge brought by three Kentucky death row inmates. The inmates said the Kentucky Department of Corrections did not follow state-mandated administrative procedures before adopting the current three-drug protocol and should have held public hearings on it.

The high court made its decision Wednesday, just days after Attorney General Jack Conway requested execution dates for Ralph Baze, Gregory Lee Wilson, and Robert Carl Foley.

Gov. Steve Beshear had not acted on the requests as of Wednesday morning.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)