LETHAL INJECTION: Shortage of Drugs Leaves Texas Unsure About Future Executions

On August 1, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced its remain­ing sup­ply of pen­to­bar­bi­tal, used for lethal injec­tions, expires in September, and it is unsure where to obtain more. The drug’s man­u­fac­tur­er, Lundbeck, Inc., has barred dis­tri­b­u­tion to states intend­ing to use the drug in executions. 

DPIC​’s Executive Director, Richard Dieter, remarked, ​“What’s hap­pen­ing is a scram­ble by Texas and oth­er states to find some­thing to quick­ly get into the syringe, rather than a rea­soned pub­lic dis­cus­sion about, if we’re going to do this, what is the best prac­tice. The prob­lem here is that life-sav­ing drugs used by med­ical pro­fes­sion­als are being used in exe­cu­tions, and the drug com­pa­nies don’t want to be a part of that.” 

In recent months, oth­er states have sought alter­na­tives to pen­to­bar­bi­tal. Missouri said it intend­ed to use propo­fol, though its man­u­fac­tur­er also opposed such use. Georgia, Arkansas, Nebraska, California and oth­er states are also review­ing exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures in response to prob­lems with earlier protocols. 

On August 1, a fed­er­al District Court in Florida ordered the state to reveal infor­ma­tion about the drugs to be used in the upcom­ing exe­cu­tion of John Ferguson on August 5. Florida replied that it received dos­es of pen­to­bar­bi­tal man­u­fac­tured by Hospira, Inc. for Lundbeck, Inc. from Cardinal Health in Ohio. The drugs were received in 2011 and have expi­ra­tion dates of Sept. 30 and Nov. 30, 2013.