Today's Omaha World-Herald reports, "State asked to return death drug." It's by Paul Hammel.
The State of Nebraska has been asked to return to federal officials its supply of sodium thiopental, one of the three drugs used for lethal injection executions.
But a spokeswoman with the Nebraska Attorney General's Office said the request, mailed April 10 by the Federal Drug Administration, will have no impact on the state.
Shannon Kingery, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jon Bruning, said the request, sent after a court ruling last month, has no bearing on Nebraska.
She said the drug referenced in the court decision was purchased from a supplier in India, Dream Pharma, and was previously detained by the FDA as an unapproved and misbranded drug.
"Nebraska's supply was purchased from a different supplier and was approved for importation by the U.S. DEA, FDA and Customs," Kingery said, in a prepared statement.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington, D.C., ruled March 27 that the FDA ignored federal law by allowing sodium thiopental, used in lethal injection executions in Nebraska and several other states, to be imported, saying it is an unapproved drug.
The judge ordered the FDA to immediately notify any state corrections departments that possessed foreign-manufactured sodium thiopental that its use is prohibited by law.
That order presumably included Nebraska, which purchased the drug from a Swiss provider. A letter April 10 asked Nebraska to make arrangements to return "any foreign-manufactured thiopental in your possession."
And:
Lincoln defense attorney Jerry Soucie said Wednesday that he is trying to determine what impact the court ruling would have on any future executions.
A Nebraska corrections department spokeswoman said the department would work with the AG’s office on a formal response to the FDA.
"FDA tells state to surrender lethal injection drug," is the Lincoln Journal Star coverage written by Kevin O'Hanlon.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ordered Nebraska to surrender its supply of the lethal injection drug sodium thiopental.
An April 10 letter from the FDA to state Corrections Director Robert Houston orders prison officials to contact the FDA at "your earliest convenience to make arrangements for the return to FDA of any foreign-manufactured thiopental in your possession."
The letter followed a recent ruling by a federal judge in Washington that said the FDA ignored the law in allowing foreign-made sodium thiopental into the country.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ordered the FDA to notify immediately any state correctional departments in possession of foreign-manufactured sodium thiopental that its use is prohibited by law and that the drug must be returned to the FDA.
And:
Similar letters were sent to Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, South Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee.
Eric Berger, a law professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the problems Nebraska and other states are having with lethal injection could be foreseen.
"Nebraska's failure to follow federal law in procuring a drug for its lethal injection procedure parallels the story in many states, which have tried to implement these procedures without sufficient appreciation of their complications," he said.
"Several states with lethal injection on the books have failed to assemble an expert team to design a viable, safe procedure to execute people. Without an expert team that understands potential complications, problems are going to arise."
In yesterday's coverage, South Dakota has been ordered to turn over its foreign-sourced lethal injection drugs. Earlier coverage of Nebraska lethal injection issues begins at the link.
Related posts are in the international and lethal injection indexes.
Comments