"Oklahoma attorney general seeks lift of execution stay," is the title of an AP report via the Tulsa World.
Attorney General Drew Edmondson has asked a federal judge to lift a stay of execution in the case of convicted killer Jeffrey David Matthews.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot stayed Matthews' Aug. 17 execution after the Department of Corrections altered the drugs used in the execution process due to a nationwide shortage of the anesthetic, sodium thiopental.
In a motion filed Wednesday, state officials say DOC has acquired enough sodium thiopental to proceed with the execution without changing its existing lethal injection protocol.
If the stay is lifted, Edmondson will ask the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set a new execution date.
The Fierce Pharma Manufacturing website posts, "Anesthesia drug drought hits prisons, people, pets," by George Miller.
Death penalty executions and elective surgeries are both seeing delays due to a shortage of anesthesia drugs. In Kentucky, with two executions pending, officials have only enough sodium thiopental (pentothal) for one, reports USA Today. The state has reached out to others, only to find that they too are in short supply.
Hospitals, doctors and patients are feeling the pain via postponement of elective surgeries. Sodium thiopental maker Hospira cites manufacturing problems for the scarcity and projects greater availability in early 2011. The company received an FDA warning letter in April citing cGMP violations at its Clayton, NC, facility, where it makes propofol and other drugs. And its second-half financial results cite charges associated with the company's warning letter response.
The sodium thiopental shortage follows a scarcity of Propofol, challenging anesthesiologists as well as penal officials. Veterinarians too are affected, with many having difficulty finding PropoFlo and Rapinovet--brand-name Propofol for use in animals. A trade reports says they have not been manufactured for most of 2010.
Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins here; more on the shortage of sodium thiopental, here.
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