After con­cerns were raised that Missouri’s pro­posed use of the anes­thet­ic propo­fol in exe­cu­tions could endan­ger the sup­ply of that drug for use in surg­eries, Governor Jay Nixon ordered the Department of Corrections to revise the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. Experts say that the new pro­to­col, which hides the source of the pen­to­bar­bi­tal that will now be used in exe­cu­tions, could result in sub­stan­dard drugs being used to exe­cute pris­on­ers. The state plans to use a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy to pro­duce the drug, but and inspec­tion of com­pound­ing phar­ma­cies by the Missouri Board of Pharmacy found about 1 in 5 drugs did not meet their stan­dards. Randy Juhl, the for­mer dean of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Pharmacy, ques­tioned whether the statute that reg­u­lates com­pound­ing phar­ma­cies even allows them to legal­ly pro­vide drugs for an exe­cu­tion, since it requires that a pre­scrip­tion be ​“issued for a legit­i­mate med­ical pur­pose.” John Simon, a con­sti­tu­tion­al lawyer rep­re­sent­ing death row inmate Joseph Paul Franklin, said he is con­cerned that the drug could cause Franklin ​“a lengthy, excru­ci­at­ing death.” ​“Criminal penal­ties aren’t intend­ed to drag us down to the lev­el of the worst offend­ers,” Simon said. Franklin is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on November 20.

(C. McDaniel and V. LaCapra, ​“Mo. Moving Forward With Executions, Despite Secrecy Over Drug Supply,” KWMU-FM, November 14, 2013.) See Lethal Injection.

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