Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, "State accused of violating federal law in acquiring lethal injection drug." It's written by Rhonda Cook.
The Georgia Department of Corrections circumvented federal law in trying to quickly secure a scarce drug used in lethal injections, according to a letter asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate.
The request was made in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder by a lawyer representing a death row inmate from Cobb County. The letter quotes records the state provided.
“The Georgia Department of Corrections appears to have violated the federal Controlled Substance Act,” John Bentivoglio, a former associate deputy U.S. attorney general in Washington, wrote in a letter Thursday.
Bentivoglio describes extraordinary steps Corrections took to get the sedative thiopental, a scheduled III non-narcotic controlled substance, when a shipment for several states, including Georgia, was held by U.S. Customs in Memphis last summer.
The letter said Corrections is not registered with the federal government to import drugs and the agency did not “submit a declaration to the Drug Enforcement Administration when GDC imported thiopental last year.
“The GDC’s actions call into question the legality and integrity of the process the department uses to administer lethal injections,” Bentivoglio wrote. “Given these potential violations of federal law and the implications they raise with respect to pending executions in Georgia, I respectfully urge you to direct appropriate agencies within your department to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of these issues.”
The Department of Justice declined comment Thursday afternoon.
No inmates are currently scheduled for execution in Georgia.
And:
According to Bentivoglio's letter sent Thursday about the Georgia case and the accompanying documents, state prison officials became anxious when Customs officers in Memphis held a large shipment from Dream Pharma Ltd., a London company, when it arrived last June 28. The shipment was held pending the Food and Drug Administration's approval.
On July 14 the director of procurement for Corrections asked Dream Pharma in an e-mail if the state could buy thiopental directly from the business. Dream Pharma said it could.
An assistant commissioner told the procurement chief to “make it happen. Get a good quantity but ensure it has an extended shelf life!” according to the letter.
Correction wired Dream Pharma $340.41 on July 21 for 50 vials of thiopental to be shipped to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, which is the location of Death Row. According to the attorney, Corrections documents show the invoice and the shipping label “identified the contents as ‘pharmaceuticals not restricted.’”
"It does look like they did an end-run around the requirements,” Bentivoglio told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They were either negligent in not knowing their responsibility or it was purposeful. Either way, on the face of it, it looks unlawful.”
"Death row inmate asks DOJ to investigate," is the title of Greg Bluestein's AP report, via the Macon Telegraph.
A Georgia death row inmate's attorneys asked the Justice Department on Thursday to launch an investigation into whether state corrections officials violated federal law to secure a supply of a key death penalty drug.
The letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Georgia Department of Corrections did not register with the Drug Enforcement Administration when it imported its supply of sodium thiopental, a lethal injection sedative that has been in short supply even before the drug's sole U.S. manufacturer decided last month to stop producing it.
It also said the state should have filed a declaration with federal regulators when it imported the drugs from a British supplier in July 2010.
"The United States has strict drug import rules for a reason: To ensure drugs used for legitimate purposes are not adulterated, counterfeit, or diverted into the illicit market," said John Bentivoglio, who is representing death row inmate Andrew Grant DeYoung.
Department spokeswoman Kristen Stancil said the agency is reviewing the letter but offered no other response. Officials have said Georgia's stockpile of the drug is sound. And state attorneys have argued in court that similar arguments involving other death row inmates amount to a backdoor attempt to commute their sentences.
The call for an investigation is the latest in the legal assault scrutinizing Georgia's lethal injection procedure. A federal judge rejected a lawsuit earlier this month from another death row inmate who claimed the state's stockpile of sodium thiopental had expired and that using it would cause him to die in excruciating pain.
A news release from the law firm Skadden, Arps, representing DeYoung, is below:
Georgia Department of Corrections Violates Federal Law in Desperate Effort
to Get Drugs for Executions
U.S. Attorney General Asked to Investigate the Violations and, if Confirmed,
Confiscate Illegal Drugs
The Georgia Department of Corrections has likely violated federal law by unlawfully importing sodium thiopental into the United States, according to new evidence uncovered by lawyers representing a death row prisoner in Georgia. The evidence, which is outlined in a letter that was delivered to Attorney General Eric Holder today, depicts a desperate attempt by the corrections agency to circumvent the law to secure new supplies of thiopental from foreign sources in the face of a shortage of the drug that is used in lethal injection executions. The letter (attached) calls on the Attorney General to investigate the apparent violations of federal law and, if violations are found, to confiscate the unlawfully imported drugs from the GDC.
Records obtained by lawyers representing Andrew Grant DeYoung from the GDC under the state's Open Records Act indicate the GDC is not registered with the DEA as an importer and did not file a declaration when it imported drugs from a distributor in the United Kingdom in July 2010. The documents also indicate that the GDC is not registered to possess Schedule III non-narcotic substances – the class of drugs that includes thiopental. Federal law imposes tight controls on the importation of controlled substances, requiring importers to obtain a registration from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and to file declarations at the time of importation. If the GDC failed to obtain an import registration or other import authority, then they are in clear violation of federal law.
"The United States has strict drug import rules for a reason: to ensure drugs used for legitimate purposes are not adulterated, counterfeit, or diverted into the illicit market," said John Bentivoglio, partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and former Associate Deputy Attorney General. "The GDC appears to have resorted to unlawful means to obtain thiopental, raising serious questions about the legality and integrity of the lethal injection procedure in Georgia," he added.
GDC's efforts to obtain thiopental directly from the UK distributor, Dream Pharma, followed problems the agency had in getting another shipment of thiopental through U.S. customs. The documents obtained by DeYoung's lawyers indicate the prior shipment was held up by Customs in Memphis, Tennessee, and that the agency considered using a contact within the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help get the shipment through.
"These are not mere record-keeping violations. The import registration and declaration requirements are at the heart of federal controlled substance laws, and the apparent violations we have uncovered warrant a prompt and thorough investigation,” said Mr. Bentivoglio.
The letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is in Adobe .pdf format.
Earlier coverage of the Georgia drug begins at the link; more on and the FDA's position, also linked. Related posts are in the lethal injection index.
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