Federal Execution-Drug Supplier Says It Will No Longer Produce Pentobarbital for Executions

Connecticut-based com­pa­ny Absolute Standards, which was iden­ti­fied as the source of lethal injec­tion drugs used in 13 fed­er­al exe­cu­tions in 2020 and 2021, has said it will no longer pro­duce the drug used in exe­cu­tions — pen­to­bar­bi­tal. In a let­ter to two Connecticut law­mak­ers, John Criscio, pres­i­dent of Absolute Standards, said the com­pa­ny ceased pro­duc­ing pen­to­bar­bi­tal in December 2020, and has ​“no inten­tion to resume any pro­duc­tion or sale of pen­to­bar­bi­tal.” Mr. Criscio’s let­ter explains that his com­pa­ny was reg­is­tered with the Drug Enforcement Agency to pro­duce and man­u­fac­ture pen­to­bar­bi­tal but does not address claims that the com­pa­ny sup­plied the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) with pen­to­bar­bi­tal. State rep­re­sen­ta­tive Josh Elliot, one of the law­mak­ers who is propos­ing new leg­is­la­tion to pro­hib­it the sale of all drugs man­u­fac­tured in Connecticut for use in exe­cu­tions, said in response that ​“just because the one com­pa­ny that had been iden­ti­fied as a man­u­fac­tur­er of these drugs is no longer man­u­fac­tur­ing them doesn’t mean we want to leave the oppor­tu­ni­ty avail­able for future man­u­fac­tur­ing in the state.” 

Following report­ing from ​“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver in April 2024 that linked Absolute Standards to the 13 exe­cu­tions car­ried out under for­mer President Donald Trump’s admin­is­tra­tion, the com­pa­ny received ques­tions and crit­i­cism from pub­lic groups and oth­ers opposed to the death penal­ty. Connecticut state Senator Saud Anwar and his col­league Rep. Elliot asked Mr. Criscio’s com­pa­ny to cease pro­duc­tion and request­ed a meet­ing with com­pa­ny lead­ers, but Mr. Criscio declined a meet­ing, say­ing that ​“although some reports have giv­en the impres­sion that [Absolute Standards] act­ed ille­gal­ly or even pur­pose­ful­ly sub­vert­ed the law, noth­ing could be fur­ther from the truth.” 

Despite assur­ance that Absolute Standards will no longer pro­duce pen­to­bar­bi­tal, Sen. Anwar intends on intro­duc­ing leg­is­la­tion dur­ing the next gen­er­al ses­sion that would place a ban on Connecticut-based com­pa­nies from pro­duc­ing drugs used for lethal injec­tion. ​“I’m more inter­est­ed in mak­ing it ille­gal going for­ward. I think that laws last longer than leg­is­la­tors and issues and I feel that irre­spec­tive of their com­mit­ment, I am inter­est­ed in hav­ing a law in the future…to make sure that we don’t have anoth­er sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion that we learn about indi­rect­ly or direct­ly five years, 10 years, 20 years from now,” Sen. Anwar told The Intercept. Rep. Elliot, whose dis­trict is home to Absolute Standards, is con­fi­dent that the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion would draw sup­port from his leg­isla­tive col­leagues. ​“I would be sur­prised if this issue would have any issue get­ting through the leg­is­la­ture,” he said. ​“I would imag­ine this would be some­thing my col­leagues would be more than hap­py to get through.”

For more than a decade, depart­ments of cor­rec­tions across the United States have had dif­fi­cul­ty acquir­ing some of the drugs tra­di­tion­al­ly used in lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. Many drug man­u­fac­tur­ers have explic­it­ly banned the use of their prod­ucts in exe­cu­tions and oth­ers have stopped pro­duc­ing these drugs com­plete­ly. More than a dozen states have also enact­ed secre­cy statutes intend­ed to pro­tect drug sup­pli­ers and man­u­fac­tur­ers from pub­lic scruti­ny, as well as shield those involved in executions.