Recent edi­to­ri­als in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times called into ques­tion the cur­rent use of lethal injec­tion in exe­cu­tions, in light of the deci­sion by the sole U.S. man­u­fac­tur­er of a key drug used by almost all states to stop its pro­duc­tion. Hospira Inc. was the only U.S. pro­duc­er of sodi­um thiopen­tal, the main anes­thet­ic used in lethal injec­tions, but the com­pa­ny said inter­na­tion­al con­cerns about the death penal­ty prompt­ed its halt. The short­age of the drug caused some states to seek it over­seas. The New York Times cit­ed a litany of prob­lems with the batch­es of the drug used in recent exe­cu­tions in Arizona and Georgia. ​“Even with judi­cial bless­ing, the con­duct of exe­cu­tions in this coun­try is a sham­bles. In Arizona and Georgia, the sodi­um thiopen­tal used in exe­cu­tions has pos­si­bly been inef­fec­tive and almost cer­tain­ly been ille­gal. It came from Dream Pharma, an unli­censed British sup­pli­er, run from a dri­ving school. The batch­es car­ried a date of 2006. They were like­ly made by a com­pa­ny in Austria that went out of busi­ness. The drug is said to be effec­tive for only a year. As a for­eign-made drug with­out approval by the Food and Drug Administration, it is pro­hib­it­ed by fed­er­al statute.” In a sim­i­lar edi­to­r­i­al, the Los Angeles Times not­ed, ​“If this were just a sup­ply prob­lem, it might be com­par­a­tive­ly easy to solve. But lethal injec­tion, con­sid­ered the most ​‘humane’ way to exe­cute crim­i­nals, comes with a host of oth­er eth­i­cal, reg­u­la­to­ry and legal chal­lenges. Medical asso­ci­a­tions refuse to con­done physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions, increas­ing the dan­ger of botched pro­ce­dures. The Food and Drug Administration wants noth­ing to do with lethal-injec­tion drugs, refus­ing to ver­i­fy the effec­tive­ness of imports but allow­ing states to pur­chase them. Thus there is no way of know­ing whether the drugs are pro­duc­ing the ​‘pain­less’ death they promise, or a tor­tur­ous death for­bid­den by the Constitution.” Read the full edi­to­ri­als below.

https://​www​.nytimes​.com/​2​0​1​1​/​0​1​/​2​8​/​o​p​i​n​i​o​n​/​2​8​f​r​i​3​.html

New York Times, January 28, 2011 
Lethal Injection and the F.D.A.
Capital pun­ish­ment means lethal injec­tion. The admin­is­tra­tion of a bar­bi­tu­rate as part of a fatal dose of drugs is meant to ren­der a con­vict uncon­scious before oth­er drugs stop his or her breath­ing and heart so the exe­cu­tion can some­how be con­strued by a judge as being nei­ther cru­el nor unusual. 
Sodium thiopen­tal is at the heart of this sto­ry. A fast- and short-act­ing gen­er­al anes­thet­ic, it has been used to put con­victs under and make exe­cu­tions method­i­cal. For more than a year, how­ev­er, a short­age of the drug has widened the gap between the real­i­ty of car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions and sup­port for them in American law. In October, a major­i­ty of the Supreme Court wrong­ly insist­ed there was no evi­dence that the short­age had any bear­ing on whether an exe­cu­tion can be done con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly. Now the evi­dence is impos­si­ble to ignore. 
We strong­ly oppose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment on many grounds. Even with judi­cial bless­ing, the con­duct of exe­cu­tions in this coun­try is a sham­bles. In Arizona and Georgia, the sodi­um thiopen­tal used in exe­cu­tions has pos­si­bly been inef­fec­tive and almost cer­tain­ly been ille­gal. It came from Dream Pharma, an unli­censed British sup­pli­er, run from a dri­ving school. The batch­es car­ried a date of 2006. They were like­ly made by a com­pa­ny in Austria that went out of busi­ness. The drug is said to be effec­tive for only a year. As a for­eign-made drug with­out approval by the Food and Drug Administration, it is pro­hib­it­ed by federal statute. 
The F.D.A. ini­tial­ly sus­pect­ed the drug from Dream Pharma of being adul­ter­at­ed or mis­la­beled and refused to let it be import­ed. Then it let the drug enter the coun­try — but with the warn­ing that the agency hadn’t reviewed the drug’s ​“iden­ti­ty, safe­ty, effec­tive­ness, puri­ty or any other characteristics.” 
This month, the F.D.A. stat­ed: ​“Reviewing sub­stances import­ed or used for the pur­pose of state-autho­rized lethal injec­tion clear­ly falls out­side of F.D.A.’s explic­it pub­lic health role.” 
In the mean­time, the only American man­u­fac­tur­er of sodi­um thiopen­tal — for­mer­ly described as F.D.A.-approved — has announced it will no longer make the drug. It planned to pro­duce the drug in Italy, but the Italian gov­ern­ment has said it won’t per­mit the drug’s export for use in executions. 
When it reaf­firmed the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment three years ago, a splin­tered Supreme Court said it believed lethal injec­tion car­ried nei­ther ​“sub­stan­tial” nor ​“objec­tive­ly intol­er­a­ble” risk of inflict­ing seri­ous harm. How can the jus­tices be con­fi­dent in that conclusion now? 
/​/​/​/​/​
Editorial 
Demise of a death drug 
States need sodi­um thiopen­tal to per­form lethal injec­tions, but it’s in short sup­ply. Now what? 
Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2011 
In response to vio­la­tions of inter­na­tion­al human rights norms, Western gov­ern­ments are slap­ping sanc­tions on a rogue regime by halt­ing exports of a dead­ly sub­stance. That’s noth­ing new; what is new is that the rogue nation is the United States. 
The sub­stance in ques­tion is sodi­um thiopen­tal, a fast-act­ing anes­thet­ic designed for surgery that has been put to a more sin­is­ter pur­pose in 34 states, which use it to numb con­demned prison inmates before inject­ing anoth­er drug that stops their breath­ing and a third that stops their hearts. Sodium thiopen­tal is very hard to come by because the only U.S. com­pa­ny that makes it has ceased pro­duc­tion. Hospira Inc., unable to make the drug in the U.S., had hoped to man­u­fac­ture it at a plant in Italy, but author­i­ties there demand­ed assur­ances that it would­n’t be used for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Unable to pro­vide them, Hospira opt­ed to get out of the busi­ness. Britain has banned exports of the drug to the U.S.
The United States is an extreme rar­i­ty among indus­tri­al­ized democ­ra­cies for its embrace of the death penal­ty, which has been abol­ished in law or prac­tice by 139 nations. That’s why European coun­tries are team­ing up to stop exports of exe­cu­tion drugs to the U.S. — and that’s throw­ing a wrench into the American machin­ery of death. Without a sup­ply of sodi­um thiopen­tal, many states will have to go through the lengthy process of revis­ing their exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures. Executions have been delayed for five years in California amid law­suits over whether the state’s lethal injec­tion method — which uses sodi­um thiopen­tal — con­sti­tutes uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly cru­el pun­ish­ment. The state has an ample sup­ply of the drug because it acquired 90 dos­es from Britain before London imposed its ban, but when that cache expires, the whole legal night­mare might start over. 
If this were just a sup­ply prob­lem, it might be com­par­a­tive­ly easy to solve. But lethal injec­tion, con­sid­ered the most ​“humane” way to exe­cute crim­i­nals, comes with a host of oth­er eth­i­cal, reg­u­la­to­ry and legal chal­lenges. Medical asso­ci­a­tions refuse to con­done physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions, increas­ing the dan­ger of botched pro­ce­dures. The Food and Drug Administration wants noth­ing to do with lethal-injec­tion drugs, refus­ing to ver­i­fy the effec­tive­ness of imports but allow­ing states to pur­chase them. Thus there is no way of know­ing whether the drugs are pro­duc­ing the ​“pain­less” death they promise, or a tor­tur­ous death for­bid­den by the Constitution. 
Our biggest objec­tion to the death penal­ty has noth­ing to do with death drugs. In an excel­lent but still imper­fect legal sys­tem, it is impos­si­ble to deter­mine guilt with 100% cer­tain­ty, which is why dozens of death row inmates have been exon­er­at­ed. Once a con­vict is dead, it’s too late to set him or her free if new evi­dence mate­ri­al­izes. Add to this the expense of the nev­er-end­ing appeals process and the seri­ous ques­tions about exe­cu­tion method­ol­o­gy raised by the sodi­um thiopen­tal fra­cas, and we have to ask: Is the vis­cer­al sat­is­fac­tion Americans derive from killing con­vict­ed killers real­ly worth its cost? 
— - — - — 
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times 
(Editorials, cit­ed above.) See oth­er Editorials and Lethal Injection. See pho­to of store­front in London from which drugs were pur­chased for recent U.S. executions.
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