LUCASVILLE, Ohio -- State prison authorities are preparing to use a new method of lethal injection to execute a convicted killer next week.

The change will make Ohio the only state in the nation to use the new method.

On Monday, reporters and photographers, including News Center 7, were allowed inside the Death House at Lucasville Correctional Facility, where the death penalty will be carried out.

LUCASVILLE: Tour Of State Death House

Prison officials readily admitted that Ohio will be the first state to use this lethal injection method for executions. They said it is both humane and effective.

Since the state began using the death penalty again in 1999, officials used a series of three drugs to execute inmates. First, to sedate and then to stop the heart and lungs.

Now, authorities are switching to a new method that includes a large and lethal dose of just one drug.

Julie Walburn of the Ohio Department of Corrections said, "Our experts that we talk to believe this is no more painful than establishing an IV site. The inter-muscular is similar to a flu shot injection."

The change to this method came coincidentally as the state opened up the death House at the prison for a media tour.

The last time it was opened was seven years ago when officials removed the old electric chair.

The execution table is now ready for the next inmate to be executed. The single cell is ready in the Death House as well.

Convicted killer Kenneth Biros of Northeast Ohio is scheduled for execution next week. While the state defends the new one drug protocol for executions, critics have called it experimental.

A man who lives near the Lucasville prison is in favor of the new method. Stan Mitchell said, "Hopefully, it will be more humane. They shouldn't continue to poke around for a vein. Maybe one shot will do it."

The courts will decide if the execution will move forward next week using the new method of lethal injection.