SEAN MURPHY, Associated Press

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — The botched April execution of an Oklahoma inmate and other troubling ones in Ohio and Arizona this year gave capital punishment opponents a flicker of hope that the most pro-death penalty parts of the country might have a change of heart. They didn’t.

Although Oklahoma temporarily halted executions amid an investigation, prison officials held what amounted to a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its overhauled death chamber only months later and are scheduled to resume killing inmates in mid-January.

Rather than causing states to reconsider capital punishment, the prolonged executions and problems securing lethal injection drugs have led states to explore new, old and more efficient ways of killing.

Oklahoma lawmakers are considering gassing inmates, while Tennessee is reviving the electric chair. Utah is considering firing squad.