"Drug used in recent Oklahoma execution was provided by Arkansas, dose also provided to Tenn.," is the AP report via KFSM-TV.
One of the drugs used in the recent execution of an Oklahoma death row inmate was provided by Arkansas.
Arkansas has extra supplies of sodium thiopental — which renders people unconscious — after two executions were stayed because of objections to changes in the lethal-injection law. The state provided the drug to Oklahoma for the Oct. 14 execution of Donald Ray Wackerly.
An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Freedom of Information Act request with the Arkansas Department of Correction produced e-mails showing Tennessee has also received a dose of the drug. A Tennessee Department of Correction spokesman declined comment on where the drug was acquired.
In Tennessee, the AP report is, "Tenn. Supreme Court Grants Temporary Stay for West," via WLEX-TV.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has granted a temporary stay for death row inmate Stephen Michael West.
The court issued the order on Saturday. It grants West a postponement through Nov. 30. He was scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening in Nashville for the 1986 stabbing deaths of Wanda Romines and her 15-year-old daughter Sheila Romines in Union County.
The court made the decision so that the Davidson County Chancery Court can hear evidence in a lawsuit West's attorneys filed alleging that prisoners executed by lethal injection experience unconstitutionally severe pain.
The lawsuit claims the first drug in Tennessee's three-drug lethal injection protocol does not adequately anesthetize prisoners.
Last month's Oklahoma execution is noted at the link. Coverage of the drug shortage begins with the preceding post.
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