The worldwide shortage of sodium thiopental is being felt in execution chambers. Today, at the Poynter Institute's website Al Tompkins posts, "States Deal with Impact of Death Penalty Drug Shortage."
There is a worldwide shortage of a drug called thiopental sodium, which is a key ingredient of the "cocktail" states use when they lethally inject inmates. The shortage is causing states to reconsider when and how to execute condemned inmates.
The shortage caused a last minute stay of execution for Jeffrey Matthews in Oklahoma last week, as noted here.
Yesterday's Purcell Register reported, "State believes drug in compliance with statute," written by Susie Williams-Allen.
Matthews and his attorney also objected due to one of the drugs used in the lethal injection process being substituted.
“The judge also wanted more time to study the situation,” Charlie Price, spokesperson with the Attorney General’s Office, said. “The state believes the drug is in compliance with the state statute that says the sedative must be ultrashort-acting barbiturate.”
The Department of Corrections (DOC) wanted to substitute brevital, a form of methohexital sodium, for sodium thiopental, which is normally used for sedation.
Matthews’ attorneys argued the substitute had never been used in an execution and it was an experimental drug. No proof existed as to the humane alternative.
Reportedly, the DOC was substituting the sedative because of concerns about the purity of thiopental on hand, according to a DOC spokesperson.
The drugs used for lethal injection are sodium thiopental, vercuonium bromide and potassium chloride.
The sodium thiopental causes unconsciousness, the bromide stops respiration and the chloride stops the heart.
In Kentucky, today's Lexington Herald-Leader carries the AP report, "Governor sets execution date for Northern Kentucky murderer. Governor holds off on two others." It's written by Brett Barrouquere.
Gov. Steve Beshear set a Sept. 16 execution date for a rapist and murderer, but he held off signing two other death warrants Wednesday because there is a shortage of a key drug used in executions.
Beshear signed the warrant for Gregory L. Wilson, 53, saying all his appeals "as a matter of right" had been exhausted.
And:
Beshear selected Wilson's case from among three recommended for execution warrants by Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway because it was the oldest.
Requests for execution dates are pending for Ralph Baze, convicted of killing the Powell County sheriff and deputy in 1992, and Robert Carl Foley of Laurel County, convicted in 1993 and 1994 of killing six people in two incidents.
Beshear said he signed only one warrant because the state has enough sodium thiopental for just one execution. Kentucky's stock expires Oct. 1, and a new supply of the drug is not expected until early in 2011.
"The Cabinet's repeated attempts to obtain additional thiopental have so far been unsuccessful," Beshear said.
Wilson's execution would be the first since Kentucky readopted its lethal injection protocol in May, seven months after the Kentucky Supreme Court halted all executions, ruling that there were problems with the way the protocol was put in place.
Three other inmates are challenging the way the protocol was readopted, but a judge in Frankfort has not ruled in the case.
Wilson has also filed a federal lawsuit challenging multiple aspects of Kentucky's execution protocol.
The article notes that Kentucky has carried out three executions since 1976; the last in 2008.
WHAS-TV has, "Ky. governor holding off on some executions due to shortage of key drug," by Claudia Coffey.
Kentucky's stock expires October 1 and a new supply of the drug is not expected until early in 2011.
It's raising a number of ethical questions; the biggest is whether one dose for one execution even safe to use so close to the date it expires.
And:
Donald Vish, the Director of Advocacy for the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, says his organization has asked the governor to stay the execution until the entire system can be reviewed especially now given a key chemical is set to expire just two weeks after the Wilson execution.
"I think it creates a substantial risk of a botched execution or a substantial risk of lingering pain if the efficacy of those drugs has been diminished in any way," says Donald Vish with the KY Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
Earlier coverage of the shortage begins with this post.
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