ianstone
09-28-2010, 04:12 PM
Executions put on hold in U.S. because of national shortage of lethal injection drug
By Mail Foreign Service (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Mail+Foreign+Service)
Last updated at 4:08 PM on 28th September 2010
Comments (14) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1315927/Executions-hold-U-S-national-shortage-lethal-injection-drug.html#comments)
[/URL]
Executions in the U.S. have been put on hold because of a shortage of one of the drugs used in lethal injections across the country.
Several of the 35 states that rely on lethal injection are either scrambling to find sodium thiopental - an anaesthetic that renders the condemned inmate unconscious - or considering using another drug.
The shortage has already delayed an Oklahoma execution last month and led Kentucky's governor to postpone the signing of death warrants for two inmates.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/28/article-0-00FC9C3F000004B0-434_468x315.jpg Postponed: Seventeen executions in the U.S. face being delayed after a national shortage of one of the drugs used in lethal injections
Arizona is trying to get its hands on the drug in time for its next scheduled execution next month and California said the shortage will stop executions on Friday - three hours after an inmate is scheduled to die - when its stock expires.
The sole U.S. manufacturer, Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Illinois, has blamed the shortage on unspecified problems with its raw-material suppliers and said new batches of sodium thiopental will not be available until January at the earliest.
Nine states have a total of 17 executions scheduled between now and the end of January, including Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
'We are working to get it back onto the market for our customers as soon as possible,' Hospira spokesman Dan Rosenberg said.
But at least one death penalty expert was skeptical of Hospira's explanation, noting that the company has made it clear it objects to using its drugs for executions.
Hospira also makes the two other chemicals used in lethal injections.
Sodium thiopental is a barbiturate, used primarily to anesthetise surgical patients and induce medical comas. It is also used to help terminally ill people commit suicide and sometimes to euthanise animals.
Thirty-three of the states that have lethal injection employ the three-drug combination that was created in the 1970s: First, sodium thiopental is given by syringe to put the inmate to sleep.
Then two other drugs are administered: pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes muscles, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
Ohio and Washington state use just one drug to carry out executions: a single, extra-large dose of sodium thiopental.
According to a letter from the Kentucky governor's office, Hospira told state officials that it lost its sole supplier of the drug's active ingredient and was trying to find a new one.
Switching to another anesthetic would be difficult for some states. Some, like California, Missouri and Kentucky, adopted their execution procedures after lengthy court proceedings, and changing drugs could take time and invite lawsuits.
Sodium thiopental has been largely supplanted by other anesthetics in the U.S., and hospitals do not stock much of it.
Last spring, Hospira, a publicly traded company, sent a letter to all states outlining its discomfort with the use of its drugs for executions, as it has done periodically.
'Hospira provides these products because they improve or save lives and markets them solely for use as indicated on the product labeling,' Kees Groenhout, clinical research and development vice president, said in a March 31 letter to Ohio.
'As such, we do not support the use of any of our products in capital punishment procedures.#
Jonathan Groner, an Ohio State University surgeon and death penalty opponent who researches the issue, speculated the real reason for the unavailability of sodium thiopental is that its medical uses 'have shrunk to the point that the company doesn't want to make a drug that has no use but to kill people'.
However, Rosenberg, the company spokesman, said the shortage has nothing to do with that.
Last month, an Oklahoma judge delayed the execution of Jeffrey Matthews when the state tried to switch anesthetics after running out of its regular supply.
Oklahoma finally found enough sodium thiopental from another state, but the court-ordered delay continues.
Read more: [URL]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1315927/Executions-hold-U-S-national-shortage-lethal-injection-drug.html#ixzz10rBzwGqj (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1315927/Executions-hold-U-S-national-shortage-lethal-injection-drug.html)
By Mail Foreign Service (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Mail+Foreign+Service)
Last updated at 4:08 PM on 28th September 2010
Comments (14) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1315927/Executions-hold-U-S-national-shortage-lethal-injection-drug.html#comments)
[/URL]
Executions in the U.S. have been put on hold because of a shortage of one of the drugs used in lethal injections across the country.
Several of the 35 states that rely on lethal injection are either scrambling to find sodium thiopental - an anaesthetic that renders the condemned inmate unconscious - or considering using another drug.
The shortage has already delayed an Oklahoma execution last month and led Kentucky's governor to postpone the signing of death warrants for two inmates.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/28/article-0-00FC9C3F000004B0-434_468x315.jpg Postponed: Seventeen executions in the U.S. face being delayed after a national shortage of one of the drugs used in lethal injections
Arizona is trying to get its hands on the drug in time for its next scheduled execution next month and California said the shortage will stop executions on Friday - three hours after an inmate is scheduled to die - when its stock expires.
The sole U.S. manufacturer, Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Illinois, has blamed the shortage on unspecified problems with its raw-material suppliers and said new batches of sodium thiopental will not be available until January at the earliest.
Nine states have a total of 17 executions scheduled between now and the end of January, including Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
'We are working to get it back onto the market for our customers as soon as possible,' Hospira spokesman Dan Rosenberg said.
But at least one death penalty expert was skeptical of Hospira's explanation, noting that the company has made it clear it objects to using its drugs for executions.
Hospira also makes the two other chemicals used in lethal injections.
Sodium thiopental is a barbiturate, used primarily to anesthetise surgical patients and induce medical comas. It is also used to help terminally ill people commit suicide and sometimes to euthanise animals.
Thirty-three of the states that have lethal injection employ the three-drug combination that was created in the 1970s: First, sodium thiopental is given by syringe to put the inmate to sleep.
Then two other drugs are administered: pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes muscles, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
Ohio and Washington state use just one drug to carry out executions: a single, extra-large dose of sodium thiopental.
According to a letter from the Kentucky governor's office, Hospira told state officials that it lost its sole supplier of the drug's active ingredient and was trying to find a new one.
Switching to another anesthetic would be difficult for some states. Some, like California, Missouri and Kentucky, adopted their execution procedures after lengthy court proceedings, and changing drugs could take time and invite lawsuits.
Sodium thiopental has been largely supplanted by other anesthetics in the U.S., and hospitals do not stock much of it.
Last spring, Hospira, a publicly traded company, sent a letter to all states outlining its discomfort with the use of its drugs for executions, as it has done periodically.
'Hospira provides these products because they improve or save lives and markets them solely for use as indicated on the product labeling,' Kees Groenhout, clinical research and development vice president, said in a March 31 letter to Ohio.
'As such, we do not support the use of any of our products in capital punishment procedures.#
Jonathan Groner, an Ohio State University surgeon and death penalty opponent who researches the issue, speculated the real reason for the unavailability of sodium thiopental is that its medical uses 'have shrunk to the point that the company doesn't want to make a drug that has no use but to kill people'.
However, Rosenberg, the company spokesman, said the shortage has nothing to do with that.
Last month, an Oklahoma judge delayed the execution of Jeffrey Matthews when the state tried to switch anesthetics after running out of its regular supply.
Oklahoma finally found enough sodium thiopental from another state, but the court-ordered delay continues.
Read more: [URL]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1315927/Executions-hold-U-S-national-shortage-lethal-injection-drug.html#ixzz10rBzwGqj (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1315927/Executions-hold-U-S-national-shortage-lethal-injection-drug.html)