Today's New York Times reports, "Murderer Is Executed in Georgia After Losing Stay." It's by Kim Severson and Robbie Brown.
A convicted murderer in Georgia whose lawyers argued that the painkilling drugs used to help execute him might be ineffective lost an 11th-hour appeal to the Supreme Court on Tuesday night and was put to death shortly before midnight.
Justice Clarence Thomas had briefly stayed the execution of the inmate, Emmanuel Hammond, 45. But the court then allowed it to go forward.
Earlier in the day, a county court and the State Supreme Court both ruled that evidence supposedly showing that a Georgia prisoner who was executed in September had suffered pain because of an ineffective dose of the drug, sodium thiopental, was too speculative to warrant a stay.
Georgia prison officials first injected Mr. Hammond with sodium thiopental ordered from an unlicensed British company that operates from the back of a London driving school.
Mr. Hammond’s public defenders, as well as death penalty opponents, argued that the British company might have shipped batches of the drug that were past the expiration date and possibly ineffective at blocking the pain of paralysis and death that come with execution.
And:
As the shortage became acute last fall, California and Arizona obtained shipments of sodium thiopental from an unlicensed British wholesaler called Dream Pharma, but the British government has since refused to allow exports of drugs for use in capital punishment, a policy that is under consideration by the European Union.
Georgia, too, received supplies of sodium thiopental from the same source and was likely manufactured by a company that has not existed for five years, according to Mr. Hammond’s lawyers, the American Civil Liberties Union and Reprieve, a British human rights group. Their evidence is based on public records that contain receipts and e-mails tracing the transactions.
At least two other states might also have received shipments, but only Georgia and Arizona have believed to have used the imported drug.
“Questions about this drug mean some executions are going to be delayed in a lot of states,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
The imported drug was at the heart of arguments in three hearings on Tuesday. Mr. Hammond’s lawyers wanted the execution delayed until the provenance and quality of the drugs could be verified.
The Food and Drug Administration initially did not allow the drug into the country because it was suspected to be adulterated or mislabeled. The drug, which usually expires in about a year, carried a 2006 date. For reasons that are unclear, the F.D.A. eventually did allow it into the country.
“The origin and irregularities of these drugs raise serious questions as to whether they are adulterated, expired or counterfeit,” Mr. Hammond’s lawyers wrote in their appeal to the State Supreme Court. “Without the requested relief, Mr. Hammond will suffer irreparable harm in that he will be executed in an unconstitutional manner.”
Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution carries the AP report, "Georgia man executed for 1988 killing of teacher."
His execution came amid a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, a part of the three-drug cocktail used in Georgia's lethal injections. His attorneys had sought time to gather more information on how the state obtained the drug, claiming in court filings it came from a "fly-by-night supplier operating from the back of a driving school in England."
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delayed the execution briefly Tuesday night until the full court could consider Hammond's appeal. The appeal was rejected late Tuesday night in a one-page ruling.
And:
"We wouldn't allow a dying pet to be euthanized using drugs with such dubious origins," said Sara Totonchi of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which filed the lawsuit. "That Georgia would carry out its business of extinguishing a human life in this manner is outrageous and embarrassing."
It was the fourth execution in the nation this year; the 1,238th post-Furman execution in America since 1977.
Earlier coverage of the British supplier of sodium thiopental begins at the link; more of the FDA's involvement in the post, "FDA Helps States Get Execution Drug."
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