"Documents suggest few states properly registered lethal injection drug imports," is the title of Greg Bluestein's AP report, via the San Antonio Express-News. It's also available from other news outlets. It's datelined Atlanta.
Some of the states scrambling to import a lethal injection sedative in scarce supply failed to properly register with federal regulators before receiving the drug from overseas, according to emails released this week.
The Drug Enforcement Administration was only formally notified twice last year that sodium thiopental had been imported, according to a November 2010 email sent to the agency, even though 10 states received the drug from overseas manufacturers, or another state that got it from outside the U.S.
The emails were obtained Wednesday by the ACLU of Northern California. Many of them emails were heavily redacted by the agency, and the DEA did not release any further details. It wasn't immediately clear which state notified the DEA about the imports.
States must register with the DEA before importing a controlled substance and notify the agency when they receive it. Defence attorneys in Georgia and elsewhere have said breaking those rules could mean "adulterated, counterfeit or otherwise ineffective" drugs could be used in executions in violation of the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
And:
The DEA took Georgia's stockpile of the drug in March after defence attorneys questioned whether the state properly registered with the DEA before importing it from London. Regulators have since taken stockpiles of the drug from Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee. Arizona, Arkansas, California, Nebraska and South Dakota also received overseas shipments of the drug.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the probe.
The DEA documents suggested that the investigation ramped up in late March. An official on March 28 distributed an Associated Press article that documented the extraordinary — and legally questionable — methods prison officials took to obtain the drugs.
Above it was a note that urged the offices to "please do a check of said prisons in your area and see if they have now or in the past requested or received this drug via unauthorized means. Please attempt to confiscate any and all controlled substances."
Earlier coverage from Alabama and Georgia regarding the DEA actions begins at the links. Related posts are in the lethal injection index.
Also, "Ala man executed for 4 dead in 1992 shooting spree," is the AP report via the Birmingham News.
An Alabama man was executed Thursday for the 1992 killing of four people during a shooting spree in which he said he was mentally ill and high on drugs and alcohol.
Corrections officials said 42-year-old Jason Oric Williams died at 6:19 p.m. CDT from a lethal injection administered at Holman Prison in Atmore.
Williams became the first person to die in Alabama's death chamber since the state switched to pentobarbital instead of sodium thiopental in its execution cocktail. The state switched drugs because of a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental.
It was the 18th execution in the nation this year; Alabama's third execution in 2011. It was the 1,252nd post-Furman execution in the United States. Texas has also carried out three executions in 2011. According to TDCJ, there are nine scheduled executions this year, including four set for next month. More are likely to be added.
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