On March 27, a fed­er­al District Court held that for­eign-man­u­fac­tured sodi­um thiopen­tal was improp­er­ly approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in exe­cu­tions. Judge Richard Leon (pic­tured) of the District Court of the District of Columbia ordered any cor­rec­tion­al depart­ments in pos­ses­sion of the drug to return it to the FDA. The rul­ing grant­ed sum­ma­ry judg­ment in favor of a law­suit filed by death row inmates in Arizona, California, and Tennessee against the FDA. Those states, along with sev­er­al oth­ers, had obtained sodi­um thiopen­tal, an anes­thet­ic used in lethal injec­tions, from for­eign sources after the sole U.S. man­u­fac­tur­er ceased pro­duc­tion. The inmates con­tend­ed ​“that unap­proved for­eign thiopen­tal will fail to anes­thetize plain­tiffs prop­er­ly dur­ing exe­cu­tion, caus­ing con­scious suf­fo­ca­tion, pain, and car­diac arrest.” According to Judge Leon, the for­eign sodi­um thiopen­tal ​“is a mis­brand­ed drug and an unap­proved new drug” and ​“the FDA nei­ther approved nor reviewed thiopen­tal for safe­ty and effec­tive­ness.” A January 2011 state­ment released by the FDA said “[r]eviewing sub­stances import­ed or used for the pur­pose of state-autho­rized lethal injec­tion clear­ly falls out­side of FDA’s explic­it pub­lic health role.” The judge dis­agreed, say­ing ​“the FDA appears to be sim­ply wrap­ping itself in the flag of law enforce­ment dis­cre­tion to jus­ti­fy its author­i­ty and mas­quer­ade an oth­er­wise seem­ing­ly cal­lous indif­fer­ence to the health con­se­quences of those immi­nent­ly fac­ing the executioner’s needle.”

(Z. Tillman, ​“Judge Blocks Shipment of ​‘Unapproved’ Drug Used in Lethal Injections,” Blog of Legal Times, March 27, 2012.) Read the judge’s Memorandum in Beaty v. FDA (No. 11 – 289) here. See also Lethal Injection. For drugs used in each exe­cu­tion, see Executions for a giv­en year. Many states have switched from sodi­um thiopen­tal to pen­to­bar­bi­tal as the anes­thet­ic for lethal injec­tions. States may be obtain­ing the lat­ter drug in the U.S., even though it is man­u­fac­tured else­where.

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