The Informant

CDCR

Lawsuits, international trade regulations, and raw material shortages are complicating the market for drugs used in executions.

Next week, the Oklahoma’s department of corrections will go to court with a request–one that prison operators around the country will no doubt be watching. Oklahoma officials will be asking the court for permission to use a new execution drug: one that’s generally used to euthanize animals.

Oklahoma’s not the only one that’s been forced to think outside the box when it comes to finding drugs to use in carrying out lethal injections. A nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, a drug commonly used in the lethal injection process, has states scrambling to find alternative sources for their execution supplies. Which is also raising concerns about the origins of some of these drugs–and questions about whether or not they’re effective, reliable, and have been obtained legally. Here’s a state-by-state look at the controversy.

California

California does not have any executions scheduled at the moment. The last one, scheduled for September 30, was called off pending cases in federal and state courts that charge the state’s lethal injection process does not adequately ensure that an inmate does not experience pain while dying. At that time, it came out that California’s stock of sodium thiopental expired the next day, October 1. At the last minute (before the execution was called off) the state obtained a new stock of the drug–12 grams of sodium thiopental (enough, theoretically, for four executions) with an expiration date in 2014. California has not said where the drugs came from–only that they obtained the stock legally from within the United States. The controversy here is that they could not have obtained the drugs from Hospira, the sole US manufacturer of the drug, and the only one approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Hospira, which says there’s a shortage of raw materials to make thiopental, has not made any since 2009. The last batch they made carries a 2011 expiration date. As court cases progress and executions (presumably) resume, the legal question will be whether the state must reveal its source for the drug and whether they can carry out an execution using drugs made by a producer that has not been certified by the FDA.

Texas and Ohio

The states of Texas and Ohio reportedly have stockpiles of sodium thiopental, purchased before the drug became scarce. Both will likely run out sometime next year if Hospira does not resume manufacturing soon.

Arizona

Purchased a stock of sodium thiopental on the same day as California, September 30. Under pressure from a court, the state revealed that it obtained the drug from a manufacturer in England. On October 26, the state executed Jeffrey Landrigan using the drugs from Great Britain. A federal judge had attempted to delay the execution until she could determine the legality of using non-FDA-approved drugs, but the US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 split decision, overruled and allowed it to go ahead. Reports from those who attended the execution suggest that the drug appeared effective.

Tennessee

Has also reportedly turned to England in search of sodium thiopental, which has spurned a lawsuit in the UK, where there is no capital punishment. The lawsuit, brought about by a human rights group, asks the country’s Business Secretary to intervene and add regulations to the export of sodium thiopental that would prevent it from being used in executions. This past weekend, a Tennessee court granted a stay of execution to Stephen Michael West, who was scheduled to die last night. At issue, evidence that suggests a previously executed man may have died of suffocation instead of being painlessly put to death by lethal injection.

Arkansas

Is reportedly not on the market for sodium thiopental, but is a source of the drug for other states. Executions are currently on hold in Arkansas, which reportedly prompted the state to make its supply of sodium thiopental available to both Oklahoma, which has already made use of it, and Tennessee.

If England does halt its exports of sodium thiopental, and Hospira does not start manufacturing again soon, it’s likely more states will be following Oklahoma’s example and looking for permanent replacements for the drug. Needless to say, court rooms will be busy.