"Virginia lacks drugs for lethal injections; political solution advances in state House," is the report in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch. It's written by Markus Schmidt and Frank Green. It's also available from HuffPost.
The Virginia Department of Corrections said Tuesday it does not have the drugs necessary to carry out a lethal injection.
Lisa E. Kinney, director of communications for the department, said the drugs used by the department in the past have expired. She said the department is attempting to find the needed drugs.
There are eight people on death row in Virginia with no execution dates set.
On a voice vote Tuesday, the House of Delegates gave preliminary approval to a proposal that would override a condemned prisoner’s choice of execution in the case of a shortage of lethal injection drugs.
House Bill 1052, sponsored by Del. Jackson H. Miller, R-Manassas, essentially means that death row inmates in Virginia who wish to die by lethal injection still could face execution by electrocution if the chemicals used for lethal injections are not available.
The Department of Corrections did not comment on the pending legislation.
And:
Miller’s measure advanced in the House Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee last week after a proposal by Del. Scott A. Surovell, D-Fairfax, that would do away with the electric chair as a method of execution in Virginia, was defeated in subcommittee.
“This bill heads in the wrong direction,” Surovell said about Miller’s proposal Tuesday. “We ought to be talking about ways to make our system more humane,” he said.
Under current state law, a condemned prisoner may choose whether to die by lethal injection or in the electric chair. If the inmate doesn’t select either option at least 15 days before the scheduled execution, the method is lethal injection by default.
Earlier coverage from Virginia begins at the link.
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