The St. Louis Post-Dispatch updates its coverage of the drug change with, "Missouri switches to new lethal injection drug," by Jeremy Kohler.
Missouri’s effort to mete out capital punishment continued to evolve Tuesday with a plan to carry out executions with a drug commonly used to euthanize pets.
The Missouri Department of Corrections announced a plan to use lethal injections of the sedative pentobarbital after Gov. Jay Nixon postponed an execution over concerns about using a common hospital anesthetic drug, propofol.
"Franklin execution to be carried out as scheduled using pentobarbital," is by Jessica Machetta at MissouriNet.
Missouri’s last execution was that of Martin Link on February 9, 2011. Nicklasson’s co-defendant, Dennis Skillicorn, was executed May 25, 2009. They are the only executions the state has carried out since 2005. Executions are carried out at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
The Atlantic's Wire posts, "Missouri Turns to Compounding Pharmacies for Lethal Injection Drugs," by Abby Ohlheiser.
Facing a shortage of mass-produced drugs, Missouri will rely on a private compounding pharmacy to make the state's lethal injection drug. That means the state will resume executing prisoners after Gov. Jay Nixon put the capital punishment schedule on hold earlier this month. The drug, pentobarbital, is used in 13 other states to execute prisoners. Facing pressure from several different groups, Nixon had backed away from a controversial plan announced earlier this spring to start using propofol for executions, a drug that's never been used in capital punishment before.
Other states have been more successful in attempts to experiment with new, untested drugs for executions to make up for dwindling supplies from large manufacturers. Florida tried out a new lethal drug last week during the execution of William Happ, who is now the first person to die from a state-sanctioned lethal injection of midazolam hydrochloride. But Missouri faced additional pressure from doctors in the state against its decision to use a new drug in lethal injections. Here's, in part, why: propofol is an extremely popular anesthetic in the U.S., and its top manufacturer is German. In response to Missouri's flirtation with the drug for executions, many worried that the E.U. would impose sanctions on its export to America, limiting the supply across the board. Missouri ended up promising to return its European supply of propofol to ease concerns that it could be used in the U.S. for capital punishment.
Earlier coverage of Missouri lethal injection issues begins with yesterday's Department of Corrections announcement.
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