Only issue I heard was one lawsuit taking issue with the fact that non-medically trained personnel administer the injections. Also as part of that lawsuit, it took issue with the fact the state did not have a prescription for the thiopental as required by FDA guidelines. It was essentially tossed. The burden of proof was on the petitioners that it caused enough pain/suffering to constitute cruel and unusual punishment, as was alleged in the lawsuit. They did not meet their burden of proof. The legal standard I see used now with regard to lethal injections is that no more pain/suffering be inflicted than necessary for the mere extinguishment of life.
As for the other issue......from what I understand, MoDOC has the authority to change the protocol. There have been legal challenges to the use of pentobarbital nationwide. Ohio had challenges to their one drug protocol, which will take some time to litigate.
Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Delaware, Mississippi, Arizona, South Carolina and Virginia have all carried out executions with the 3 drug protocol with pentobarbital being the substitute. The legal challenges to pentobarbital have not succeeded.
Louisiana, South Dakota, Montana have indicated through one way or another that they intend to carry out future executions using pentobarbital. South Dakota and Montana have set new protocols into play. It may have been speculated that Louisiana would switch to pentobarbital. I am simply not certain. I saw it on Death Penalty Information Center (they lean against the death penalty, I know).
There is an execution scheduled in Idaho. Unless they are using thiopental, I would guess that they are using pentobarbital. We shall soon find out. The same in Oregon. Thiopental "legally" obtained expired. So foreign sources were used. I know that Nebraska bought it from India, but they had to destroy it after the courts said they could not use it. Didn't meet US pharmaceutical standards, for some reason. South Dakota obtained thiopental from India as well. I doubt with what happened in Nebraska, they'll use it.
Yet other states that use the death penalty are bogged down in lethal injection challenges of one type or another. None have indicated a switch to pentobarbital. So will Missouri's death penalty statute become irrelevant? Why hasn't there been pressure from Nixon or Koster about this issue? They are quite pro death penalty. I fear the statute will become irrelevant unless action is taken soon.
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