c****g
发帖数: 37081 | 1 注射死没药？AZ真是神奇的州！闲的蛋疼，按老夫意思，一针Sat. KCl, tec. grade；
立竿见影，倍儿灵。
FLORENCE, Ariz. – Facing a nationwide shortage of a lethal injection drug,
Arizona has taken an unusual step that other death penalty states may soon
follow: get their supplies from another country.
Such a move, experts say, raises questions about the effectiveness of the
drug. But it also may further complicate executions in the 35 states that
allow them, as inmates challenge the use of drugs not approved by federal
inspectors for use in the U.S.
Arizona said Tuesday that it got its sodium thiopental from Great Britain,
the first time a state has acknowledged obtaining the drug from outside the
United States since the shortage began slowing executions in the spring.
"This drug came from a reputable place," Chief Deputy Attorney General Tim
Nelson said. "There's all sorts of wild speculation that it came from a
third-world country, and that's not accurate."
Nelson said the state revealed the drug's origins to let the public know
that its supply is trustworthy and to dispel rumors. However, he did not
name the company that manufactured it.
Without assurances of the drug's quality, many questions will be raised,
including its effectiveness and how it should be handled, and would serve as
a basis for lawsuits, said Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham
University.
"The impact could be huge," Denno said. "The source of the thiopental is
critical."
Tuesday night, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay preventing Arizona from
executing convicted killer Jeffrey Landrigan. The court's 5-4 ruling said a
lower court was wrong to block Tuesday's scheduled execution because of
questions about the drug's origin and whether it was safe.
Landrigan's lawyers argued he could be suffocated painfully if the sodium
thiopental doesn't render him unconscious. In lethal injections, sodium
thiopental makes an inmate unconscious before a second drug paralyzes him
and a third drug stops his heart.
Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., the sole U.S. manufacturer of the drug,
has blamed the shortage on unspecified problems with its raw-material
suppliers and said new batches will not be available until January at the
earliest.
There are no FDA-approved overseas manufacturers of the drug.
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The limited supply has also directly affected executions in California,
Kentucky and Oklahoma, and may affect executions in Missouri, which says its
supply of sodium thiopental expires in January.
California officials say they acquired a dosage of 12 grams in September
with a 2014 expiration date. But there was some dispute about the source.
Hospira said its remaining supplies expire next year and California could
only have obtained it elsewhere.
The state prison system would not address the discrepancy. "The state
obtained the sodium thiopental lawfully from within the United States,"
Terry Thornton, a corrections spokeswoman told The Associated Press.
Ohio, which spends about $350 for the drug for each execution, ran out of
the amount prescribed by state procedures just three days before a May 13
execution. The state obtained enough in time but won't say where.
A few weeks ago, Kentucky's governor held off signing death warrants setting
execution dates for two inmates because the state is almost out of sodium
thiopental. The state's lone dose expired Oct. 1.
Officials say they have tried unsuccessfully to get the drug from other
states, and have gotten calls from states looking for it.
In August, an Oklahoma judge delayed the execution of Jeffrey Matthews when
the state tried to switch anesthetics after running out of its regular
supply in August. Matthews was convicted of killing his 77-year-old great-
uncle during a 1994 robbery.
Oklahoma finally found enough sodium thiopental from another state, but the
court-ordered delay continues.
The controversy could end if Hospira resumes making the drug next year as
indicated, or states could switch to another drug.
At least 15 states, including Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Texas and
Tennessee, might be able to switch drugs without a new law or administrative
process, death penalty expert Megan McCracken said.
In Arizona, officials at a state prison in Florence were waiting for the
high court's decision all day. The execution had been set for 10 a.m.
Tuesday, but a ruling by a federal judge in Phoenix that had been upheld by
an appeals court panel had the execution on hold.
It wasn't immediately clear when the execution would take place.
The delay, prosecutors say, is one reason the public has lost some faith in
the criminal justice system.
"We're 20 years in and we're not arguing over guilt or innocence," said
interim Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, whose office prosecuted
Landrigan in the 1989 killing of Chester Dyer during a robbery. "We have
lawyers fighting lawyers."
In recent years, lethal injections have run into high-profile problems,
including botched executions.
Ohio and Washington have switched from a three-drug method to a single,
powerful dose of sodium thiopental. The change helps avoid litigation over
pain that inmates could suffer from the second and third drugs if they haven
't been knocked out.
The switch doesn't affect the drug's administration, which has led to a
number of fumbled executions, including a September 2009 procedure in Ohio
in which the governor stopped an execution after two hours when officials
couldn't find a usable vein.
The issue will come down to whether an overseas version of sodium thiopental
would be equivalent to what the FDA has approved here, said Ty Alper,
associate director of the death penalty clinic at the University of
California-Berkeley.
"It really opens the door to Eighth Amendment challenges that go to the
heart of whether executions work the way they're supposed to," he said,
referring to the amendment about prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.
___
Welsh-Huggins reported from Columbus, Ohio. | m*****5
发帖数: 23482 | | c****g
发帖数: 37081 | 3 过电、勒脖、吸气，都挺cool的。
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