#LethalInjectionDrug #blocked by #judge #Compounding #pharmacy called the #Apothecary #Shoppe told not to #supply #Missouri #government with #unofficial #PentobarbitalMix Share 102 Tweet this Email Associated Press in Oklahoma City theguardian, Thursday 13 February 2014 04.19 GMT Jump to comments (149) #Lawyers and #campaigners are #challenging the #use of #unofficial #compounded pentobarbital #mixtures for #executions in the #US. Lawyers and campaigners are challenging the use of unofficial compounded pentobarbital mixtures for executions in the US. Photograph: Paul Buck/AFP/Getty A US federal judge has temporarily blocked an Oklahoma compounding pharmacy from selling a drug to the Missouri department of corrections for use in an upcoming execution. The restraining order was issued in a lawsuit filed a day earlier in US district court by the Missouri death row inmate Michael Taylor. His attorneys allege that the department contracts with the Apothecary Shoppe to provide the drug set to be used in Taylor’s 26 February lethal injection. The lawsuit argues that several recent executions involving the drug, compounded pentobarbital, indicate it will likely cause Taylor “severe, unnecessary, lingering and ultimately inhumane pain”. In his order on Wednesday Judge Terence Kern wrote that Taylor’s attorneys submitted “facts demonstrating that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will result to plaintiff before defendant can be heard in opposition”. The judge set a hearing for Tuesday and ordered the pharmacy to submit a response to the injunction by Friday. He said the order would remain in effect at least until the hearing. It was not immediately clear if the execution would be delayed because of the ruling. The state has not revealed the name of the compounding pharmacy supplying the drug and the Apothecary Shoppe previously declined to confirm or deny that it was the source of a drug used in an earlier Missouri execution. A pharmacy spokeswoman did not return telephone calls seeking comment late Wednesday. Phone and email messages were also left with the Missouri department of corrections and the Missouri attorney general’s office. Taylor, 47, pleaded guilty in the 1989 abduction, rape and stabbing death of a 15-year-old Kansas City girl. One of Taylor’s attorneys, Matthew Hellman of the Washington DC law firm Jenner and Block, said the lawsuit focused attention on the drug used in Missouri’s lethal injections and the laws regarding compounding. “This is not an acceptable option,” Hellman said. Missouri corrections officials turned to the Apothecary Shoppe to supply compounded pentobarbital after manufacturers of the drug refused to provide it for lethal injections, according to the lawsuit. In January 2012 a Danish company that had produced pentobarbital under the trade name Nembutal sold the exclusive rights to the drug to an American company, Akorn Inc, on the condition that Akorn not sell the drug for use in executions. “Those manufacturers do not want medication to be used for executions,” Hellman said. Taylor’s lawsuit questions whether the pharmacy can legally produce and deliver compounded pentobarbital. It says the pharmacy is not registered as a drug manufacturer with the US Food and Drug Administration and alleges it violates federal law each time it delivers the drug across state lines to Missouri corrections officials. Along with asking for a temporary restraining order the lawsuit seeks an injunction barring the pharmacy from delivering “this unidentified, unregulated, untested and unsafe pharmaceutical product”. Hellman declined to say whether the Apothecary Shoppe sold compounded pentobarbital to states other than Missouri. Several recent executions that involved compounded pentobarbital indicated use of the drug would subject Taylor to “inhumane pain”, the lawsuit says. One such execution was that of Oklahoma death row inmate Michael Lee Wilson, 38. Within 20 seconds of receiving the lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on 9 January Wilson said: “I feel my whole body burning.” The lawsuit alleges the statement describes “a sensation consistent with receipt of contaminated pentobarbital”. The lawsuit also cites a 15 October 2012 execution in which South Dakota death row inmate Eric Robert, 50, cleared his throat, gasped for air and then snored after receiving the lethal injection. His skin turned a purplish hue and his heart continued to beat for 10 minutes after he stopped breathing. It took 20 minutes for authorities to finally declare Robert dead. “These events are consistent with receipt of a contaminated or sub-potent compounded drug,” the lawsuit says. Use of the same drug in Taylor’s execution could result in a similar reaction, Hellman said. “It is extremely disturbing.” On Monday the Missouri corrections department director, George Lombardi, told a legislative panel that the agency paid for the drug to be independently tested to make sure it worked and was sterile. He said the agency had found no substantial issues in a background check of its current supplier. Lombardi did not release the name of the pharmacy that provides the drug, saying Missouri could not carry out lethal injections if that information were released. He said the state paid $8,000 in cash to the pharmacy for the drug. theguardian/world/2014/feb/13/lethal-injection-drug-blocked-by-judge?guni=Network%20front:network-front%20main-3%20Main%20trailblock:Network%20front%20-%20main%20trailblock:Position6
Posted on: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 16:07:12 +0000
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