Bloomberg reports, "Death Row Inmates Challenge FDA on Execution-Drug Imports." It's by Tom Schoenberg. It's also available via Business Week. The lawsuit is Beaty v. Food and Drug Administration, 11-cv-00289, in the U.S. District Court, District of Columbia.
Twenty-one death row inmates asked a U.S. judge to order the Food and Drug Administration to block importation and use of a drug administered in executions, saying the anesthesia for lethal injections hasn’t been properly vetted by the agency.
Lawyers for the inmates argued today in federal court in Washington that the FDA has violated the law by allowing state departments of corrections to import sodium thiopental, a drug used as a first-stage painkiller in the process of executing an inmate with a lethal injection.
“The harm here is that unapproved, illegal drugs from an unregistered, foreign establishment are going to be administered to our clients,” Bradford Berenson of Sidley Austin LLP (1119L) in Washington told U.S. District Judge Richard Leon.
Berenson argued during a 1 1/2-hour-long hearing that the drug, which will be pumped into inmates’ veins as part of their executions, could lead to so-called anesthesia awareness. Arizona and California are two states that still have supplies of sodium thiopental and plan to use them, he said.
Gerald Kell, a lawyer for the Justice Department, urged Leon to dismiss the case, arguing the FDA’s enforcement decisions cannot be challenged in court.
“The FDA has unreviewable discretion not to bring an enforcement action,” Kell said.
And:
Leon didn’t say when he would decide the case.
“Whatever word I come up with will not be the last word,” Leon said, adding that he was a “way station on the road” to the U.S. Appeals Court in Washington.
In a lawsuit filed in February 2011, the inmates said the FDA allowed states to import “bulk amounts” of thiopental. The drug hasn’t been sold in the U.S. since 2009, when the sole U.S. manufacturer, Hospira Inc. (HSP), stopped producing it.
The inmates are seeking an injunction barring future imports of thiopental and the removal of supplies already in the possession of state governments.
The AP filing is, "Death row inmates sue to stop importation of execution drug," by Nedra Pickler. It's via the Tennessean.
Death row inmates are suing to stop the importation of a drug used in executions.
Attorneys for the prisoners in Tennessee, Arizona and California argued before U.S. District Judge Richard Leon on Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration is breaking the law by allowing sodium thiopental to be imported since it is an unapproved drug manufactured overseas.
The Obama administration argues it has discretion to allow unapproved drugs into the U.S. and wants Leon to dismiss the case.
The drug’s U.S. manufacturer announced last year that it would no longer produce it, forcing corrections officials to delay many executions. Many of the nation’s 34 death penalty states switched to an alternative drug, pentobarbital.
There is earlier coverage of international pressure to halt drug sales for executions, foreign-sourced drugs, corner-cutting by the states, Arizona's work with the DEA to import drugs, questions surrounding the Arizona drugs, and earlier statements by the FDA.
Related posts are in the lethal injection index.
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