Georgia cancels executions after lethal injections sedative seized
Source: Agencies |
March 17, 2011, Thursday
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THE US state of Georgia has canceled all executions after federal drug agents seized its supply of a sedative used in lethal injections.
The drug has been criticized by activists who oppose capital punishment and by death-row inmates, including one whose lawyers called the British exporter of the drug a "fly-by-night supplier."
US Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Chuvalo Truesdell wouldn't say exactly why Georgia's supply of sodium thiopental was taken on Tuesday, just that "we had questions about how the drug was imported to the US."
The sedative is part of a three-drug cocktail used in executions that has been in short supply since the sole US manufacturer stopped making it.
No more execution dates in Georgia have been scheduled and it's unlikely any will be set before the issue is resolved. Lauren Kane, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General's Office, said prosecutors couldn't ask a judge to set executions if corrections officials didn't have the supplies to carry one out.
Georgia's stockpile of the drug has been a target of death row inmates and capital punishment critics since corrections officials released documents this year showing the state obtained the drug from Link Pharmaceuticals, a company purchased five years ago by Archimedes Pharma Ltd. Both are British companies.
The drug was used in January to execute Emmanuel Hammond, a 45-year-old man convicted for the 1988 shotgun slaying of an Atlanta preschool teacher.
His attorneys sought a delay to gather more information on how the state obtained the drug, claiming in court documents it came from a "fly-by-night supplier operating from the back of a driving school in England." They said the drug could have been counterfeit.
The US Supreme Court, and lower courts, rejected Hammond's argument.
The state's stockpile came under more scrutiny in February when John Bentivoglio, a former deputy attorney general, asked the US Justice Department to investigate whether state corrections officials violated federal law by not registering with the Drug Enforcement Agency when it imported its supply of sodium thiopental.
"The United States has strict drug import rules for a reason: To ensure drugs used for legitimate purposes are not adulterated, counterfeit, or diverted into the illicit market," said Bentivoglio, who is representing death row inmate Andrew Grant DeYoung.
Joan Heath, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections, said state officials were not concerned with the quality of the drug and just wanted to make sure they were complying with the law.
The drug has been criticized by activists who oppose capital punishment and by death-row inmates, including one whose lawyers called the British exporter of the drug a "fly-by-night supplier."
US Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Chuvalo Truesdell wouldn't say exactly why Georgia's supply of sodium thiopental was taken on Tuesday, just that "we had questions about how the drug was imported to the US."
The sedative is part of a three-drug cocktail used in executions that has been in short supply since the sole US manufacturer stopped making it.
No more execution dates in Georgia have been scheduled and it's unlikely any will be set before the issue is resolved. Lauren Kane, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General's Office, said prosecutors couldn't ask a judge to set executions if corrections officials didn't have the supplies to carry one out.
Georgia's stockpile of the drug has been a target of death row inmates and capital punishment critics since corrections officials released documents this year showing the state obtained the drug from Link Pharmaceuticals, a company purchased five years ago by Archimedes Pharma Ltd. Both are British companies.
The drug was used in January to execute Emmanuel Hammond, a 45-year-old man convicted for the 1988 shotgun slaying of an Atlanta preschool teacher.
His attorneys sought a delay to gather more information on how the state obtained the drug, claiming in court documents it came from a "fly-by-night supplier operating from the back of a driving school in England." They said the drug could have been counterfeit.
The US Supreme Court, and lower courts, rejected Hammond's argument.
The state's stockpile came under more scrutiny in February when John Bentivoglio, a former deputy attorney general, asked the US Justice Department to investigate whether state corrections officials violated federal law by not registering with the Drug Enforcement Agency when it imported its supply of sodium thiopental.
"The United States has strict drug import rules for a reason: To ensure drugs used for legitimate purposes are not adulterated, counterfeit, or diverted into the illicit market," said Bentivoglio, who is representing death row inmate Andrew Grant DeYoung.
Joan Heath, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections, said state officials were not concerned with the quality of the drug and just wanted to make sure they were complying with the law.
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