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Thread: Anesthesia Shortage

  1. #11
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    Tennessee's lethal injection challenged

    Wanda Kay Walker sat through a day of court testimony Thursday on whether Tennessee's death-row inmates feel severe pain and suffering when they are executed.

    The 55-year-old Grand Rivers, Ky., nurse doesn't care.

    Twenty-four years ago, Stephen Michael West took three hours to rape and stab to death her mother, Wanda Romines, and her 15-year-old sister, Sheila Romines.

    "Anything he goes through is going to be an easier death than my family had and will probably be an easier death than any of us will have," she said.

    Ten days before West's Nov. 9 scheduled execution in a Nashville prison, the Tennessee Supreme Court delayed the convicted Union County murderer's death. West's lawyers brought to the court evidence they say shows that inmates are awake and in pain when given the drugs that paralyze the muscles and stop the heart.

    The state constitution says there must be a "demonstrated risk of severe pain" to qualify as cruel and unusual punishment, which would be prohibited.

    The state Supreme Court instructed Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman to hear the evidence for both sides of the case in a two-day hearing, which is expected to conclude today. The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. with the state attorney general's expert witness.

    West was not in the courtroom Thursday but was represented by federal public defender Stephen Kissinger and a team of five other lawyers.

    Dr. David Lubarsky, an anesthesiologist and Duke University professor, testified that autopsy reports and witness accounts of executed Tennessee inmates reveal that the condemned feel pain similar to what someone would feel when drowning or being buried alive.

    In the state's three-drug execution cocktail, the first drug, sodium thiopental, is supposed to render the inmate unconscious. Next, the inmate is given pancuronium bromide to paralyze the muscles and then potassium chloride to stop the heart. Lubarsky said the level of sodium thiopental given to inmates in Tennessee is not enough. Kissinger submitted evidence to the court that one woman, a minister, who watched a recent execution saw the inmate first turn blue and then a deep blue as the drugs were being shot into him.

    "It makes it very palatable to those observing," Lubarsky said. But, "it's extremely painful and disturbing" to the inmate.

    The state, represented by Mark Hudson, is expected today to call its expert, Dr. Feng Li. According to court documents, Li will testify that Lubarsky's studies aren't accurate because the autopsies on the inmates were conducted hours after their deaths.

    Lubarsky testified Thursday that time would not affect the levels of sodium thiopental in the bodies.

    The hours of testimony were filled with jargon from doctors and lawyers.

    Sitting in court with Walker and her husband, 39-year-old Regina Cooper Patterson sat clenching a three-page, handwritten note to the court.

    In it, she describes her best friend, Sheila Romines, and the life that was taken away. She concludes her letter by saying: "Please remember Sheila and Wanda felt the pain while begging for their lives while he felt no mercy and spared them nothing."

    Although a message from the victims' friend is not likely to be heard in an evidentiary hearing, she wrote the letter just in case.

    West's execution has been rescheduled for Nov. 30.

    http://www.tennessean.com/article/20...50/1017/NEWS01

  2. #12
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    Okla. Considers Using Vet Drug To Execute Inmate

    Oklahoma is moving forward with plans to execute a prisoner despite a shortage of a drug used in lethal injections that has forced some states to temporarily halt executions.

    A hearing in federal court Friday will look at the implications of adopting a different drug, one used to euthanize animals, that has never been tested on people.

    Corrections officials in Oklahoma tried to find a dose of sodium thiopental to carry out the state's next execution. When they couldn't get it, they changed their protocol to allow the use of pentobarbital instead. The question before the federal court is whether substituting the new drug violates an inmate's Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment.

    Cruel And Unusual Punishment?

    Jerry Massie, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, says it does not.

    "We believe that ... would meet all the constitutional requirements to carry out the execution," Massie said. "We do not believe it would be cruel and unusual punishment."

    Most states use a three-drug cocktail to carry out lethal injections: The first drug, the one that isn't available, is an anesthetic that renders a person unconscious; the second drug is a paralytic; and the third stops the heart.

    States outline exactly how the lethal injection process will take place, and some legal experts say officials can't just change the procedure at will.

    "The state is basically experimenting on the execution of a human being using a drug that's never been used before, and this is really a first," said Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University in New York.

    She says the court will look at many issues involving pentobarbital, which is used to euthanize animals. There are questions about the proper dose for people, and, Denno says, if the first drug in the cocktail does not work properly, it would be a violation of an inmate's rights.

    "There's consensus among experts, pro-death-penalty and anti-death-penalty experts alike, that if this drug [the anesthesia] is not effective ... the injection of the other two drugs would constitute cruel and unusual punishment because the inmate would be aware of the pain and suffering," she said.

    Drug Shortage

    John David Duty is set to be executed Dec. 16 in Oklahoma. While in prison, he strangled his cell mate.

    In court briefs filed on his behalf, attorneys argue that pentobarbital is unsafe and is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. They say there have been numerous problems in executions across the country even with the drug that has been tested. Defense lawyers also say the new drug is not an ultra-short-acting barbiturate, as the law requires.

    Two states, Ohio and Washington, now use a single-drug protocol in executions, which means prisoners get a massive dose of sodium thiopental. Others are trying to figure out what to do while the drug shortage continues.

    "Some states have announced that they have an adequate supply of sodium thiopental," said Megan McCracken, Eighth Amendment counsel at the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley. "Other states have had trouble obtaining the drug and have either turned to other states to get it or, as we've learned recently, have had to seek it from a foreign source, from another country."

    Arizona officials carried out an execution in October with a dose they obtained from the United Kingdom. In California and Kentucky, executions are on hold because their doses expired. Tennessee officials recently obtained the drug but wouldn't say where they got it.

    The company that makes sodium thiopental, Hospira, has said it can't produce the drug this year, but it could be available early next year. In the meantime, legal experts suggest the Oklahoma proposal of using another more widely available anesthetic could set a new standard for lethal injection.

    http://www.npr.org/2010/11/18/131428...rs-controversy

  3. #13
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    New drug is given the OK for executions

    OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma can use a drug that is regularly given in physician-assisted suicides and animal euthanasia in its lethal-injection formula for death-row inmates, a federal judge ruled Friday.


    Oklahoma is likely to become the first state to use pentobarbital for lethal injection on Dec. 16, when the state's next execution is scheduled to take place.

    The use of pentobarbital "falls short of the level of risk" considered to be cruel and unusual punishment by the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S District Judge Stephen P. Friot said after a hearing in his Oklahoma City courtroom.

    Friot's ruling means that the stay of execution for inmate Jeffrey Matthews expires Saturday and that his execution will be rescheduled by the state Court of Criminal Appeals.

    Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/artic...218&rss_lnk=14

  4. #14
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    Corrections chief promises to divulge how California secured lethal injection drug

    California’s top prison official said Friday he’ll soon release information on the state’s supply of a lethal injection drug. The only US manufacturer of sodium thiopental ran out of the barbiturate. But California recently purchased a supply and refused to say where it came from.

    Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate told KPCC reporter Julie Small that his department is still figuring out what information it can release and when.

    "We understand that by being circumspect with information we’ve kind of hightened the scrutiny on the issue" Cate said, "when really I think it’s not going to end up being a state secret. We’ll describe how we got it and why we went that route and all those kinds of things. It’s a matter of timing."

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California sued corrections officials to get details about where they purchased the drug. Cate says he hopes to make more information public within a couple of weeks.

    http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/11/19/...-how-californ/

  5. #15
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    States ask Texas to supply ingredient for executions

    As the supply of a key drug used in lethal injections dwindles, state officials are knocking on the door of the busiest execution chamber in the country for help.

    Some states that have the death penalty have asked Texas for doses of sodium thiopental, the so-called knockout drug, used as part of the three-drug cocktail in executions by lethal injection, according to Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She would not identify the states that requested assistance.

    The state has declined to make its supply available even though all of its 39 available doses are set to expire in March and there are only three executions scheduled in the state before then, Lyons said

    States, including Arizona, Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky, have scrambled to acquire the drug.

    Sodium thiopental renders the condemned inmate unconscious, so the prisoner does not feel pain. Hospira, the lone federally approved producer of the drug, has said new batches of the substance would not be available until next year.

    Lyons said that despite the looming expiration of Texas' extra inventory, "we do not have plans to distribute the drug to other states."

    "We have a responsibility to ensure we have an adequate supply of the drug on hand to carry out any executions scheduled in the state of Texas," Lyons said.

    States with shortages are trying to find suppliers abroad or proposing radical changes in their execution protocols to deal with the lack of drugs.

    •In Oklahoma last week, a federal judge approved the use of pentobarbital, a drug used in euthanizing animals, to replace sodium thiopental in lethal injections. Oklahoma Assistant Attorney General Stephen Krise said the state was "forced" to find an alternative when sodium thiopental became "unavailable."

    •In Arizona last month, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the execution of convicted murderer Jeffrey Landrigan after his attorneys challenged the state's acquisition of sodium thiopental from an undisclosed supplier in Britain.

    •In Kentucky in August, Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, postponed the signing of two death warrants because of the shortage of sodium thiopental. "The (state's) repeated attempts to obtain additional thiopental have so far been unsuccessful," Beshear said in written statement.

    For Oklahoma, the approval of the sodium thiopental substitute represents a departure from a procedure adopted in 1977, when Oklahoma became the first state in the nation to authorize lethal injection as a means of execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. (The first lethal injection was actually carried out in 1982 in Texas.)

    Krise said the state settled on a plan for an alternative drug — pentobarbital — after "an exhaustive search" to obtain another source of sodium thiopental.

    The assistant attorney general said he did not know how many other sources or death penalty states were approached as potential suppliers for additional sodium thiopental. Last month, he said, Arkansas provided the needed dose to carry out the execution of Donald Ray Wackerly, convicted in the 1996 murder of a Laotian immigrant.

    Krise said he did not know whether Texas was asked to share its supply.

    "I'm sure some states feel uncomfortable giving it out," he said.

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...age29_ST_N.htm

  6. #16
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    British controls on sodium thiopental export means some US executions could be halted

    Business Secretary Vince Cable has said he will control the export of the anaesthetic drug sodium thiopental for use in capital punishment after campaigners took him to court.

    Although it is not the outright ban for which campaigners have called, the move will make it more difficult for executions by lethal injection in a number of US states to go ahead.

    A statement from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills said: "In light of new information the Business Secretary has today announced that the British Government will be placing controls on the export of sodium thiopental.

    "The order will be made as soon as practicable and once in force, any person exporting this drug will require a licence issued by the Export Control Organisation."

    Earlier this month, Cable was accused of "irrationality" at the High Court for his refusal to ban the export of sodium thiopental, which is one of three drugs used during the process of lethal injection.

    A lawyer who was arguing the case of two death row prisoners, Edmund Zagorski and Ralph Baze, said that capital punishment was a clear violation of human rights and the UK government was supposed to be seeking to abolish the death penalty worldwide. It was therefore irrational and unlawful for Cable not to ban the sale of sodium thiopental for use in executions.

    It seems Cable hopes that imposing export controls on sodium thiopental will strengthen his case.

    A control on UK exports of sodium thiopental is likely to result in the staying of executions in a number of US states as there is currently a national shortage of the drug.

    The sodium thiopental shortage has affected executions in California, Oklahoma and Kentucky, while Missouri's supply of the drug will expire in January.

    The United States' sole manufacturer of the drug, Hospira, is experiencing problems with sourcing the active pharmaceutical ingredient. The company, for the record, disapproves of its product being used as a lethal injection component.

    http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/72145,...#ixzz16g2Sou8W

  7. #17
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    U.K. To Halt Shipments of Execution Drug to U.S.

    The mechanics of capital punishment seem to grow more complicated by the week.

    On Monday, the U.K. announced that it would soon effectively ban the export of anesthetic thiopental sodium to the U.S. for use in lethal injections. The move was designed “to underline the United Kingdom’s moral opposition to the death penalty,” according to a London court filing by the U.K. office that oversees export controls.

    Here’s the story from WSJ.

    The news is important, because, as readers of this page know, there is a stateside shortage of thiopental, which is the key ingredient for lethal injection in all death-penalty states save Oklahoma, where a court recently approved the use of a substitute anesthetic for lethal injections.

    A new domestic batch of thiopental will not be available until the first quarter of 2011, at the earliest. In the meantime, Arizona, and possibly other states, have imported U.K.-made thiopental for executions.

    U.K.’s thiopental embargo follows a suit this month in the U.K. on behalf of condemned Tennessee inmate Edmund Zagorski, which alleges that Tennessee ordered thiopental from overseas, possibly in the U.K., to carry out Zagorski’s execution. The suit sought a U.K. ban on thiopental exports.

    The U.K. announcement Monday “will make things more difficult for states trying to obtain thiopental” for executions, said Jamie Beagent, a London attorney representing Zagorksi.

    In a possible harbinger of more trade limits, the U.K. also announced yesterday that it will seek European Union-wide limits on thiopental exports.

    Italy’s Green Party separately has sought limits on the drug’s export, contending it violates the Italian Constitution, the WSJ reports.

    http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/11/30/...on-drug-to-us/

  8. #18
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    Execution drug came from UK, California officials say

    California corrections officials said Monday that they ordered a large dose of a scarce drug used in lethal injection executions from Britain, a revelation likely to spur legal challenges to death penalty cases.
    The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is under court order to provide details to the American Civil Liberties Union by today explaining how it got the drug sodium thiopental.
    Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton told The Bee on Monday that officials obtained two different doses of the drug for possible use in executions.
    The first batch of 12 grams came from Arizona on Sept. 30, said Thornton, noting California was not charged for it.
    The second batch of 521 grams was manufactured by Archimedes Pharma, a British company, and corrections officials paid $36,415 to obtain it, she said.
    The shipment was approved by U.S. Customs and the Drug Enforcement Administration, Thornton said. It is on the East Coast awaiting release by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
    "We have followed all the proper procedures," Thornton said.
    The origin of the drugs is the subject of a lawsuit by the ACLU's Northern California branch, which contends that it is illegal for corrections to use a foreign-produced drug in executions without FDA approval.
    Natasha Minsker, the ACLU's death penalty project director in San Francisco, said corrections officials were violating the law by releasing the information Monday to reporters but not to the ACLU.
    "Until we see the records, we don't know (if the drugs can legally be used in executions)," Minsker said. "We're still left with the same questions: Where are the records? How did they get these drugs? What are they hiding?"
    FDA officials could not be reached late Monday, but the matter has delayed executions nationwide and become an international controversy.
    Britain last week tightened rules governing the export of the drug to the United States, a move that came after California made its purchase.
    Archimedes Pharma issued a statement Monday saying it "does not export the product to the U.S.," and it has no "information on any export of the product to the U.S."
    The manner in which states have obtained supplies of the drug has become central to legal fights against executions in several states.
    The drug is the first of three administered in a lethal injection execution and is designed to render an inmate unconscious. A second drug paralyzes the inmate and a third stops the heart.
    California scrapped plans to execute convicted killer Albert Greenwood Brown on Sept. 30 because of a shortage of the drug, and executions in Arizona, Oklahoma and Tennessee have been halted over issues related to the drug shortage.
    The only U.S. maker of the drug, Hospira Inc., has said it will not produce any more until early next year. That company also has said it opposes the drug's use in executions.

    http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/07/323...#ixzz17RNkWOWZ

  9. #19
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    California Prisons release details of lethal injection drug acquisition

    California prison officials have released hundreds of pages of documents on the state’s supply of a lethal injection drug. They sent those documents to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California after a court ordered them to do it.

    California uses 6 grams of a barbiturate called sodium thiopental to anesthetize inmates during executions. The drug renders the inmate unconscious before a second drug stops his or her heart.

    The state had to cancel an execution this year in part because its supply of sodium thiopental expired and the only domestic manufacturer of the stuff ran out of supplies. Shortly after that, Corrections acquired 12 grams of sodium thiopental, and month later it acquired another 521 grams. But officials wouldn't say where or how or how much it cost.

    "That shipment of the drugs was manufactured by a company, a pharmaceutical company based in England, Archimedes Pharma. They supply the drug to distributors," explains spokeswoman Terry Thornton.

    She says the department got the smaller batch from Arizona's corrections department at no cost. The state paid a British drug distributor $36,000 for the larger supply.

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a public records request two months ago to get that information and sued to enforce it.

    Death penalty opponents doubt the legality of foreign supplies of sodium thiopental. They say those supplies may be less effective and could subject inmates to excruciating pain during executions.

    Corrections' Terry Thornton says the federal Food and Drug Administration is reviewing California's English supply of sodium thiopental – as expected.

    "We are working with the FDA, we always have been working the FDA," says Thornton. "We have approval from the DEA, we have approval of this shipment from U.S. customs and as soon as the FDA releases it will be shipped to California."

    Thornton says the department always intended to comply with the ACLU’s request for information on California's sodium thiopental supply. But she says the state agency's attorneys had to consider numerous lawsuits, state and federal laws that affect what information it could and could not release. It also took some time to compile and copy the 1,192 pages of information it's released.

    (source: Southern California Public Radio)

  10. #20
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    Prison officials await execution drug okay

    California corrections officials disclosed yesterday that they have imported a large quantity of the key drug used in lethal-injection executions and are awaiting approval of the British-made product by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

    The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation last month paid a British distributor $36,415 for 521 grams of sodium thiopental made by Archimedes Pharma, said department spokeswoman Terry Thornton.

    Prison officials also acquired 12 grams of the drug at no cost from the Arizona Department of Corrections on Sept. 30, Thornton said.

    That stock of the 1st drug used in a 3-injection sequence would be sufficient to put to death about 90 condemned prisoners by the state's practices, which require 3 grams of sodium thiopental per execution plus an equivalent amount as emergency backup. But some of the drug is also needed for training purposes, Thornton noted, reducing the potential impact of the new supply.

    A nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental has forced execution delays in several capital-punishment states.

    (source: Los Angeles Times)

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