Today's Oregonian reports, "State expects to recoup much of the $18,000 spent on execution drugs." It's written by Helen Jung.
The state expects to recoup much of the $18,000 it spent on the drugs that would have been used to execute death-row inmate Gary Haugen by returning them to the market through a reverse wholesaler, a state Department of Corrections spokeswoman said.
It is unclear how much of a "restocking fee" the state will have to pay, said spokeswoman Jeanine Hohn. The drugs include 20 50-milliliter vials of pentobarbital sodium; 50 10-milliliter vials of pancuronium bromide and 50 20-milliliter vials of potassium chloride. The total cost was $17,953.98 for the drugs, all of which would expire within three years. The wholesaler has already retrieved the drugs, she said.
"Ore. returns unneeded execution drugs, expects to recoup much of $18K it spent," is the AP report via the Republic.
Gov. John Kitzhaber canceled what had been the planned Dec. 6 execution of murderer Gary Haugen. The Democratic governor also announced in late November that Oregon would not execute any other condemned inmates during his tenure in office. He called Oregon's death penalty "compromised and inequitable."
Ford Vox posted, "Oregon Defends Its Redistribution of Lethal Injection Drugs," for the Atlantic on December 29.
When The Atlantic published "Oregon's New Death-Penalty Hypocrisy" on December 26, folks could assume that Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber didn't know (yet) that his state's prison officials were desperately searching for a vein in which to inject lethal drugs back into the death-penalty market. He now knows about these ongoing efforts, and his do-nothing response leaves us to question the depth of his moral analysis and convictions.
Oregon's prison officials want to recoup the $18,000 they spent collecting three drugs with little use other than lethal injection -- drugs now in high demand after the human-rights-promoting European Union banned their import into the United States. This decision to restock the market comes after Gov. Kitzhaber laid out his growing moral discomfort over the death penalty, resulting in his decision to use the power of his office to halt any future executions scheduled to take place in Oregon (including one scheduled for December 6).
And:
The Governor's office told me that Oregon is trying to return the drugs to the wholeseller, that they are not "selling" the drugs, "merely exploring options to return it." This contention both misses the larger point that the drugs will now be made available for other states to use, and contradicts what the Department of Corrections told Lauren Dake, statehouse reporter for The Bend Bulletin, who first uncovered the lethal liquidation on December 24:
"At the time (we purchased the drugs) manufacturers were tightening restrictions and discouraging the DOC from using them for lethal injection purposes," said DOC spokeswoman Jeanine Hohn.
...To offload the drugs, the state is working with what's known as a reverse wholesaler.
"There are a few of those folks around," Hohn said. "They are licensed by the federal government, and they manage the stocking and restocking of drugs monitored by the Drug Enforcement Agency."
The DOC makes it pretty clear that they are searching for a special kind of buyer, not calling the phone number listed on their receipt.
Earlier coverage of the Oregon moratorium begins at the link
Comments