"Inside the evolving market for lethal injection drugs," is the title of Rina Palta's report for public radio station KALW-FM.
Next week, the Oklahoma’s department of corrections will go to court with a request–one that prison operators around the country will no doubt be watching. Oklahoma officials will be asking the court for permission to use a new execution drug: one that’s generally used to euthanize animals.
Oklahoma’s not the only one that’s been forced to think outside the box when it comes to finding drugs to use in carrying out lethal injections. A nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, a drug commonly used in the lethal injection process, has states scrambling to find alternative sources for their execution supplies. Which is also raising concerns about the origins of some of these drugs–and questions about whether or not they’re effective, reliable, and have been obtained legally. Here’s a state-by-state look at the controversy.
ABC News posts, "Oklahoma Plans to Execute Convict Using Veterinary Drug." It's by Russell Goldman.
Oklahoma is considering the use of pentobarbital, a drug used to euthanize animals, in the upcoming execution of John David Duty, a convicted murderer scheduled to be executed on Dec. 12.
Across the country, states that implement the death penalty by lethal injection are scrambling to determine alternative ways to kill convicts. Hospira, the maker of sodium thiopental, better known as Pentothal, has announced a suspension of production of the drug because of an unspecified supply problem with the drug's key ingredient.
"We are probably going to look at a number of different options now that we can't use sodium thiopental," said Jerry Massie, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. "We are not sure yet what we'll end up using, but pentobarbital is a strategy we're looking at."
In court documents requesting approval to use pentobarbital, the state called the drug "an ideal anesthetic agent for humane euthanasia in animals," comparing it to the sodium thiopental used as the first part of a three-drug cocktail administered during an execution.
In federal court documents filed Monday, Duty's lawyers argued that using pentobarbital is potentially painful and would be tantamount to torture.
"Pentobarbital is untested, potentially dangerous, and could well result in a torturous execution for Mr. Duty," his lawyers wrote.
"There are risks associated with ... Pentobarbital, especially since the [state executioners] intend to use the drug as part of a 3-drug cocktail," they wrote. "Most notably, Pentobarbital is a slower acting barbiturate than Sodium Thiopental. ... This increases the risk to Mr. Duty of not being fully anesthetized at the time the Vecuronium Bromide and Potassium Chloride are administered, thereby increasing the risk of suffering excruciating pain."
In South Dakota, today's Sioux City Journal carries the AP report, "South Dakota defends lethal injection process."
The state wants a judge to set aside a convicted killer's challenge to South Dakota's lethal injection process because it says new safeguards will keep a condemned inmate from feeling any pain when the death-inducing chemicals are delivered.
The Department of Corrections adopted a revised protocol this summer that exceeds the Kentucky death penalty standards upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 and will result in "a rapid, painless and humane death," according to the state's court filing.
Donald Moeller, 58, was sentenced to death for convictions of raping and killing 9-year-old Becky O'Connell in 1990.
The state asks U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol to grant a summary judgment in its favor because Moeller has failed to show that the execution process violates constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
It explains in court documents the process in preparing an inmate for the intravenous infusion of sodium thiopental, which causes unconsciousness, and then a monitoring period before two other drugs that cause paralysis and cardiac arrest are administered.
"The abundant dose of thiopental, combined with the built-in procedures/checks to ensure that the IV is properly placed and working, renders any risk of pain to the condemned inmate far too remote to be constitutionally significant," according to the state.
Moeller's court-appointed attorney, Deborah Anne Czuba of the Federal Public Defender's Office in Little Rock, Ark., said in an e-mail that she can't comment on pending cases.
But in court papers filed Nov. 5, Czuba said the state can't argue that Moeller has failed to show how the new protocol would violate his rights when the details weren't available until recently and the judge had suspended the fact-finding process, called discovery.
"The respondent's (state) suggestion that Mr. Moeller even had the opportunity to make a showing, and neglected to do so is simply disingenuous," she said in asking Piersol to strike the state's request for summary judgment or put it on hold and allow discovery to resume.
Finally, from Tennessee, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports, "Double murderer gets reprieve to challenge lethal injection." It's written by Jamie Satterfield.
West was set to be executed this week for his role in the 1986 double homicide. Martin was 17 at the time and cannot be put to death as a result. He is serving two life sentences.
West was granted a brief reprieve on Saturday when the state Supreme Court ordered Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman to allow his defenders to test their contention lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution.
Citing autopsy evidence from three recent executions in Tennessee, West's defenders insist the three-drug protocol used by the state Department of Correction does not, as intended, render a convicted killer unconscious before the fatal drugs are administered.
They allege that the first drug instead renders a convicted killer 'paralyzed' as a second drug causes him or her to suffocate and a third drug prompts cardiac arrest.
Bonnyman on Tuesday set the matter for a hearing beginning Nov. 18. West's execution date, meanwhile, has been pushed back to Nov. 30.
The challenge of the state's execution protocol has nationwide implications since the same three-drug cocktail is used in several other states to carry out capital punishment.
Earlier coverage begins with, "Hearings Set for Lethal Injection Challenges in Oklahoma, Tennessee." Earlier coverage from South Dakota at the link. More on the Supreme Court's 2008 ruling on Kentucky's lethal injection procedure in Baze v. Rees is via Oyez.
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