Author Topic: Oklahoma pharmacy will not sell drug for Missouri execution (Guv: execution will be done anyway)  (Read 600 times)

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Offline mountaineer

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Okla. pharmacy won't sell drug for Missouri execution
8 hours ago  •  By TIM TALLEY Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY • An Oklahoma pharmacy has agreed not to provide Missouri with a made-to-order drug for an inmate’s execution scheduled for later this month, according to court documents filed Monday.

According to the documents, the Apothecary Shoppe, of Tulsa, will not prepare or provide pentobarbital or any other drug for use in Michael Taylor’s execution. The documents ask a judge to dismiss the case that Taylor’s lawyers had filed against the pharmacy seeking to stop it from providing the execution drug. A hearing is scheduled for today.

Taylor’s attorney, Matt Hellman, said that as part of the deal, the pharmacy acknowledged it has not already provided any such drug to the Missouri Department of Corrections for the execution, which is scheduled for Feb. 26.

The Missouri Department of Corrections and the attorney general’s office did not immediately return calls Monday night seeking comment about the agreement or the status of Taylor’s execution.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon indicated last week that the state has drugs to carry out Taylor’s execution. Nixon, speaking at a news conference Thursday, did not directly answer “yes” or “no” when asked about availability of the execution drug but said, “In order to complete that ultimate responsibility, that’s necessary. The Department of Corrections is prepared to carry out that execution.”

Taylor pleaded guilty to abducting, raping and stabbing to death a 15-year-old Kansas City girl in 1989.

The Apothecary Shoppe has not acknowledged that it supplies a compounded version of pentobarbital to Missouri for use in lethal injections, as Taylor says, and says it can’t because of a Missouri law requiring the identities of those on the state’s execution team to be kept confidential.

In his lawsuit, Taylor alleged that Missouri turned to the Apothecary Shoppe to supply compounded pentobarbital because the only licensed manufacturer of the drug refuses to provide it for lethal injections. That company, Illinois-based Akorn Inc., agreed to that condition when it bought the exclusive rights to the drug in January 2012 from a Danish company that had produced it under the trade name Nembutal.

Taylor contends that several recent executions in which compounded pentobarbital was used showed it would likely cause him “severe, unnecessary, lingering and ultimately inhumane pain.”

Within 20 seconds of receiving his lethal injection on Jan. 9 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Michael Lee Wilson, 38, said: “I feel my whole body burning.” This statement describes “a sensation consistent with receipt of contaminated pentobarbital,” Taylor alleges.

The lawsuit also cites the Oct. 15, 2012, execution in South Dakota of Eric Robert. Robert, 50, cleared his throat, gasped for air and then snored after receiving the lethal injection, which included compounded pentobarbital. His skin turned a purplish color, and his heart continued to beat for 10 minutes after he stopped breathing, the lawsuit contends. It took 20 minutes for authorities to finally declare Robert dead.

“These events are consistent with receipt of a contaminated or subpotent compounded drug,” the lawsuit says.

Taylor’s lawsuit questions whether the Tulsa pharmacy can legally produce and deliver compounded pentobarbital. It says the pharmacy is not registered as a drug manufacturer with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and alleges that it violates federal law each time it delivers the drug across state lines to Missouri corrections officials.
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So shoot the bleep instead.
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Could obstacles to lethal injection lead to an end to the death penalty?​​
February 12, 2014
By Dylan Kickham
Washington University in St. Louis


Access to required anesthetic agents for a lethal injection is quickly disappearing, leaving the future of the death penalty in the United States in question.

“Because the European Union opposes the death penalty, it prohibits the export of goods for executions [and] requires a time-consuming preauthorization review for every shipment of a potential ‘dual use’ pharmaceutical,” says Rebecca Dresser, JD, biomedical ethics expert and professor of law and medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.

This blockage makes it particularly difficult for states that use the death penalty to obtain anesthetic agents required in the three-drug protocol for lethal injections. This protocol involves an anesthetic to induce unconsciousness, a paralytic to induce a sustained paralysis of muscles and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Without the anesthetic, the injection would cause extreme and prolonged pain that could violate the Eighth Amendment’s probation against cruel and unusual punishment.

Dresser discusses the impact of the limited access to lethal injection drugs in a recent issue of The Hastings Center Report.

“Although the death penalty still has significant support, public support for alternatives to the death penalty is increasing,” Dresser writes.

“Capital cases are expensive, and state budgets are tight. High costs and concern about erroneous convictions have led a few states to abolish the death penalty in recent years. Barriers to obtaining lethal injection drugs could lead more states to do away with the death penalty altogether.”

Missouri is a prime example of a state dealing with limited access to lethal injection drugs. The state recently scrapped a plan to execute a murderer using propofol as the anesthetic after receiving significant pressure from drug companies. And the state’s Attorney General has proposed restoring the state’s gas chamber to bypass the hassles associated with lethal injection.
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You do what you gots to do:
Quote
Tenn. bill proposes electrocution as backup to lethal injection
Posted: Feb 18, 2014 6:45 AM EST
WKRN


KINGSTON, Tenn. -  A Tennessee senator proposed a bill that would make electrocution available as a backup option in death penalty cases.

WBIR reports Republican Sen. Ken Yager, of Kingston, Tenn., said he wants to make electrocution the method of death if lethal injection is ever ruled unconstitutional or an essential ingredient isn't available.

Rep. Dennis Powers proposed the House companion bill.

Over the next two years, Tennessee has 10 executions scheduled, following a two-year halt due to the controversy over lethal injection drugs.

Lethal injections replaced electrocution in 2000.  Before then, electrocution was the primary form of execution in Tennessee.

Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Virginia are the only states who still use electrocution as a secondary option.
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More execution news from Missouri.
Quote
Missouri set to execute inmate who has rare health defect
By Kevin Murphy
KANSAS CITY, Missouri  Tue May 20, 2014 7:01am EDT


(Reuters) - Missouri is set to execute early Wednesday a convicted killer whose lawyers have said has a rare health condition that could lead to extreme pain and suffocation during a lethal injection.

Russell Bucklew, 46, would be the first U.S. inmate executed since the botched April 29 execution of Oklahoma inmate Clayton Lockett, who writhed in apparent pain after what prison officials said was a ruptured vein that prevented the lethal cocktail of chemicals from being delivered properly.

Lockett, a convicted murderer, died of a heart attack 43 minutes after the injection started.

Bucklew was convicted of the 1996 murder of Michael Sanders in southeast Missouri, and the kidnapping and rape of Stephanie Ray, an ex-girlfriend who had been seeing Sanders. He is scheduled to die early Wednesday at a Missouri state prison.

Lawyers for Bucklew are seeking a stay of his execution, arguing that malformed blood vessels in Bucklew's head and neck could rupture under stress, causing the lethal drugs to circulate improperly and cause him undue suffering.

Attorney Cheryl Pilate also has asked the courts to require the execution to be videotaped to preserve any evidence should Bucklew's death be prolonged and excruciating or if he chokes and suffocates.

U.S. District Court Judge Beth Phillips on Monday denied the stay and the request to have his execution videotaped. Phillips ruled there was insufficient evidence to suggest Bucklew would suffer severe and needless pain.

Bucklew's lawyers have appealed that ruling.

Missouri's correction department said in court papers that Bucklew's condition dates back many years and he did not have to wait until days before his execution to raise the issue.

He has had surgery while under anesthesia and there is no reason to believe anesthesia won't be effective prior to administering the lethal drugs, the department said.

The department also has opposed the videotaping of the execution, saying that allowing it "could lead us back to the days of executions as public spectacles."

If the execution is carried out, Bucklew would be the fifth person put to death by Missouri in 2014 and the 21st person executed in the United States, including Lockett.
Words cannot describe just how hard I'm crying for this guy.   :whistle:
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