Arizona Lacks Supply of Execution Drugs, ​“Presently Incapable of Carrying Out” Executions

In a court fil­ing in the fed­er­al law­suit chal­leng­ing its exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures, Arizona offi­cials have declared that the state does not have the drugs nec­es­sary to car­ry out an exe­cu­tion, and is cur­rent­ly unable to obtain them. The fil­ing states, ​“the Department’s lack of the drugs and its cur­rent inabil­i­ty to obtain these drugs means that the Department is present­ly inca­pable of car­ry­ing out an execution.” 

Arizona has four sep­a­rate mul­ti-drug pro­to­cols it may use in exe­cu­tions. One involves the use of the anti-anx­i­ety drug, mida­zo­lam, to sedate the pris­on­er before the oth­er drugs are admin­is­tered. The oth­er three pro­to­cols involve the use of either pen­to­bar­bi­tal or sodi­um thiopen­tal. The state used mida­zo­lam in the botched exe­cu­tion of Joseph Wood in 2014, which was the last exe­cu­tion con­duct­ed in Arizona. 

The state attempt­ed to import 1,000 vials of sodi­um thiopen­tal from a sup­pli­er in India, but the ship­ment was seized at Phoenix air­port by the Food and Drug Administration, which said the impor­ta­tion of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals with­out an approved med­ical pur­pose vio­lat­ed fed­er­al law. In its recent court fil­ing, Arizona announced that it will aban­don the use of mida­zo­lam and indi­cat­ed that it has been unable to obtain the other sedatives. 

After Wood’s exe­cu­tion, death row inmates chal­lenged the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col, which called for mida­zo­lam fol­lowed by a par­a­lyt­ic drug, on the grounds that, ​“mida­zo­lam is not reli­able as a seda­tive, which means the par­a­lyt­ic will mask the inmate’s pain.” In May, U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake per­mit­ted that claim to move for­ward, effec­tive­ly delay­ing all exe­cu­tions until after the state’s sup­ply of mida­zo­lam had expired. 

Dale Baich, an attor­ney for the Arizona pris­on­ers chal­leng­ing the pro­to­col, said, ​“As we have said all along, mida­zo­lam is not an appro­pri­ate drug for use in exe­cu­tions.… Arizona now becomes the sec­ond state to aban­don the exper­i­men­tal use of this drug in exe­cu­tions. Now, more than ever, we need to ensure that Arizona’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­col com­ports with the con­sti­tu­tion­al require­ments for a humane exe­cu­tion.… We need a much more spe­cif­ic, clear plan that has been vet­ted by the court and is under­stood by the public.”

A hear­ing will be held on June 29.