“Over time lethal injec­tion has become only more prob­lem­at­ic and chaot­ic,” Deborah W. Denno, a pro­fes­sor at Fordham Law School, told the New York Times, sum­ma­riz­ing the ongo­ing bat­tles that have led states to adopt new drug sources or alter­na­tive meth­ods of exe­cu­tion. Several states have obtained or sought drugs using sources that may vio­late phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal reg­u­la­tions. For the exe­cu­tion of Alfredo Prieto, Virginia obtained pen­to­bar­bi­tal from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which pur­chased it from a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy whose iden­ti­ty is shield­ed by the state’s secre­cy law. ​“Even if the trans­ac­tions between states do not com­ply with law, there is no recourse for death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers,” said Megan McCracken, an expert in lethal injec­tion at the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Both Nebraska and Ohio received warn­ings from the Food and Drug Administration that their attempts to pur­chase sodi­um thiopen­tal from over­seas sup­pli­ers vio­lat­ed fed­er­al law regard­ing the impor­ta­tion of drugs. Oklahoma exe­cut­ed Charles Warner in vio­la­tion of its own exe­cu­tion pro­to­col, sub­sti­tut­ing an unau­tho­rized chem­i­cal, potas­si­um acetate, for the potas­si­um chlo­ride its reg­u­la­tions require. Other states have turned to alter­na­tive exe­cu­tion meth­ods: Tennessee reau­tho­rized use of the elec­tric chair, while Oklahoma passed a bill to make nitro­gen gas asphyx­i­a­tion its back­up method. Louisiana prison offi­cials also rec­om­mend­ed using nitro­gen gas, but the state has not tak­en action on that rec­om­men­da­tion. The scram­ble for lethal injec­tion drugs has delayed exe­cu­tions across the coun­try. A chal­lenge to Mississippi’s pro­to­col has halt­ed exe­cu­tions until at least next year. A Montana judge put exe­cu­tions on hold because the state’s pro­posed drug cock­tail vio­lat­ed state law, and either the drugs that com­ply with state law are not pro­duced in the U.S. and may not be import­ed or the man­u­fac­tur­er refus­es to sell the drug for exe­cu­tions. In Oklahoma, the Attorney General request­ed an indef­i­nite hold in order to review lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures after the state obtained the wrong drug for the exe­cu­tion of Richard Glossip.

(M. Fernandez, ​“Death Penalty States Face Hurdles in Carrying Out Executions,” New York Times, October 8, 2015; M. Volz, ​“Short Supply of Drugs Allowed for Use in Montana Executions, Associated Press, October 7, 2015.) See Lethal Injection.

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