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US judge blocks sale of drug for execution

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A federal judge temporarily blocked an Oklahoma compounding pharmacy from selling a drug to the Missouri Department of Corrections for use in an upcoming execution.

The temporary restraining order was issued in a lawsuit filed a day earlier in US District Court by Missouri death row inmate Michael Taylor. His attorneys allege that the department contracts with The Apothecary Shoppe to provide the drug set to be used in Taylor's lethal injection.

Inhumane pain

The lawsuit argued that several recent executions involving the drug, compounded pentobarbital, indicate it will likely cause Taylor "severe, unnecessary, lingering and ultimately inhumane pain".

The state has not revealed the name of the compounding pharmacy supplying the drug, and The Apothecary Shoppe previously declined to confirm or deny that it was the source of a drug used in an earlier Missouri execution.

Taylor, 47, pleaded guilty in the 1989 abduction, rape and stabbing death of a 15-year-old Kansas City girl.

A pharmacy spokeswoman did not return a telephone call seeking comment. Phone and e-mail messages were also left with the Missouri Department of Corrections.

One of Taylor's attorneys, Matthew Hellman of the Washington, DC, law firm Jenner & Block, said the lawsuit focuses attention on the drug used in Missouri's lethal injections and the laws regarding compounding.

"This is not an acceptable option," Hellman said.

Read: Executions increasingly viewed as torture

Used for execution

Missouri corrections officials turned to The Apothecary Shoppe to supply compounded pentobarbital after manufacturers of the drug refused to provide it for lethal injections, according to the lawsuit.

In January 2012, a Danish company that had produced pentobarbital under the trade name Nembutal sold the exclusive rights to the drug to an American company, Akorn Inc., on the condition that Akorn not sell the drug for use in executions.

"Those manufacturers do not want medication to be used for executions," Hellman said.

Taylor's lawsuit questions whether the pharmacy can legally produce and deliver compounded pentobarbital. It says the pharmacy is not registered as a drug manufacturer with the Food & Drug Administration and alleges it violates federal law each time it delivers the drug across state lines to Missouri corrections officials.

Along with asking for a temporary restraining order, the lawsuit seeks an injunction barring the pharmacy from delivering "this unidentified, unregulated, untested and unsafe pharmaceutical product." Hellman declined to say whether The Apothecary Shoppe also sells compounded pentobarbital to states other than Missouri.

Recent executions

Several recent executions that involved compounded pentobarbital indicate use of the drug will subject Taylor to "inhumane pain", the lawsuit says.

One such execution was that of Oklahoma death row inmate Michael Lee Wilson, 38. Within 20 seconds of receiving the lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary Wilson said: "I feel my whole body burning." The lawsuit alleges the statement describes "a sensation consistent with receipt of contaminated pentobarbital."

Read: Death row schizo refusing meds

The lawsuit also sites an execution in which South Dakota death row inmate Eric Robert, 50, cleared his throat, gasped for air and then snored after receiving the lethal injection. His skin turned a purplish hue and his heart continued to beat for 10 minutes after he stopped breathing. It took 20 minutes for authorities to finally declare Robert dead.

"These events are consistent with receipt of a contaminated or sub-potent compounded drug," the lawsuit says.

Similar reactions

Use of the same drug in Taylor's execution could result in a similar reaction, Hellman said.

"It is extremely disturbing," he said.

Missouri Corrections Department Director George Lombardi told a legislative panel that the agency pays for the drug to be independently tested to make sure it works and is sterile. He also said the agency had found no substantial issues in a background check of its current supplier.

Lombardi did not release the name of the pharmacy that provides the drug, saying Missouri could not carry out lethal injections if that information were released. He said the state pays $8,000 in cash to the pharmacy for the drug.


Read more:

10 facts on lethal injections

Would you witness an execution?


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