That's the title of Michael Kiefer's report in today's Arizona Republic. It's subtitled, "2-drug ‘cocktail’ caused convulsing, gagging only time it was used."
The Arizona Attorney General's Office announced this morning that it will change the drugs used to execute persons condemned to death.
The new drugs, a cocktail of a Valium-like drug called Midazolam and a morphine derivative called Hydromorphone, will replace the single barbiturate, pentobarbital, which has become unavailable because its manufacturer does not want it to be used to kill people.
Consequently, commercially manufactured pentobarbital supplies have dried up for corrections departments nationwide, forcing them to change drugs or to have them custom made by "compounding pharmacies."
There are four Arizona death row prisoners whose appeals have run out and who are eligible for execution. But the Attorney General's Office has not asked the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for those prisoners because there were no drugs available to carry out the executions.
The Midazolam-Hydromorphone combination was used in January to perform an execution in Ohio, but not without problems. According to press accounts of that execution, the condemned man gasped for air and took more than 20 minutes to die. Arizona inmates executed with pentobarbital or an earlier drug, thiopental, which also is unavailable, usually die in about ten minutes.
The Attorney General's press release says Arizona will use a stronger concentration.
"Arizona changes drugs to be used in executions as previous drug becomes unavailable," is the AP coverage, via the Greenfield Reporter.
Arizona is changing from a single drug for executions to a two-drug combination already used in Ohio because it is no longer able to obtain the previous drug.
And, this excerpt quotes Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne:
The previous 11 executions conducted by the state since 2011 used pentobarbital. But its sole manufacturer has refused to sell it to states for use in executions. Oklahoma and Texas turned to compounding pharmacies to obtain the drug but Horne said in a statement that those pharmacies faced threats.
Earlier coverage from Arizona begins at the link. You can also jump to news of Arizona lethal injection issues.
Also available, coverage of Ohio's botched execution of Dennis McGuire, using midazolam and hydromorphone. Related posts are in the lethal injection category index.
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