"Death row drugs 'may be defective'," is the report from the UK's Press Association. It's via Google News. Here's an extended excerpt:
Drugs used for lethal injection in the US which were supplied by a west London-based pharmaceutical company may have been defective, leading to potentially agonising deaths for prisoners, according to an expert on execution.
Dream Pharma, a small company run from the back of the Elgone Driving Agency in Horn Lane, Acton, west London, is understood to have supplied the anaesthetic sodium thiopental which was used in the execution of convicted murderer Emmanuel Hammond in Georgia on Tuesday.
Before the execution Mark Heath filed a sworn declaration which raised concerns over whether the thiopental sold to Georgia Department of Corrections "lacked efficacy".
He said it was "extremely troubling" that after triple-murderer Brandon Rhode was injected with thiopental during his execution in September, his eyes remained open. Some reports suggested his eyes darted around the room before staring blankly at the ceiling of the death chamber.
The thiopental used in his execution is also understood to have been supplied by Dream Pharma.
Dr Heath said this was "very unusual and surprising" and raised the concern that either the thiopental was incorrectly administered or the integrity of the drug was "significantly compromised".
Sodium thiopental is used first to induce a coma, followed by pancuronium bromide which paralyses the muscles, and potassium chloride which stops the heart.
Dr Heath said: "If the thiopental was inadequately effective Mr Rhode's death would certainly have been agonising. There is no dispute that the asphyxiation caused by pancuronium and the caustic burning sensation caused by potassium would be agonising in the absence of adequate anaesthesia."
He said the origin of the thiopental used in the executions was "highly unusual". He said the vials were labelled as having come from a company called Link Pharmaceuticals which became Archimedes Pharma in 2006, adding: "This raises the concern that the batch, if it is indeed thiopental, may contain expired thiopental."
Digital Journal reports, "Execution drug sold to US by UK firm may have been ineffective," by Andrew John.
A drug sold from Britain that may have been ineffective and beyond its use-by date was employed in an execution in Georgia, USA, this week, it has been revealed.The execution of 45-year-old Emmanuel Hammond – who spent 23 years on death row for murder – went ahead shortly before midnight on Tuesday. The drugs used are a combination of three: one to anaesthetise, one to paralyse and one to kill.It was the first of these, sodium thiopental, that was thought to have passed its shelf life, and defence lawyers put this point in an unsuccessful late appeal.It was sold to the George Department of Correction by Dream Pharma, a small pharmaceuticals company working from the offices of a driving school in Acton, west London.The school – Elgone Driving Academy – is run by Mehdi “Matt” Alavi, who would not comment on the case.The Independent reports: “In a series of last-minute appeals, lawyers for Mr Hammond presented evidence from Dr Mark Heath, a clinical anaesthesiologist at Columbia University Medical Centre, who said evidence from a previous execution of a Georgia prisoner suggested Dream Pharma’s sodium thiopental may not have worked properly.”The report cites the case of Brandon Rhode, who was killed on 27 September 2010 using sodium thiopental from Dram Pharma. “During the execution,” says the newspaper, “numerous reporters and witnesses noticed that his eyes remained open throughout the procedure, an event Dr Heath described as ‘highly atypical’ as the drug normally ensures an executed inmate’s eyes remain closed.”
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