Oklahoma says running out of death penalty drug

Reuters ^ | May 2, 2012 | By Steve Olafson

[Brandonmark]

Oklahoma, which executes more prisoners per capita than any other state, said on Wednesday it has only one remaining dose of pentobarbital, a key drug used to kill condemned prisoners.

One reason the state is running out is because of a ban on the sale of drugs for such purposes by the European Union, which opposes the death penalty.

Oklahoma has a single vial of pentobarbital left after the execution on Tuesday night of 57-year-old Michael B. Selsor, prison spokesman Jerry Massie said.

Oklahoma is the first state to publicly admit it has nearly exhausted supplies of the drug but other states may follow because of the EU clamp down, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Pentobarbital is a sedative that is the first of a three-drug cocktail administered by Oklahoma. It is followed by vecuronium bromide, which stops breathing, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

Oklahoma was the first state in the country to use pentobarbital in 2010 after a shortage of another anesthetic, sodium thiopental, caused penal officials in death penalty states to look for an alternative.

Eleven other states also use it. Arizona and Ohio use a single injection of pentobarbital for executions while nine states use the multi-drug protocol, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Lundbeck Inc, the only manufacturer of pentobarbital, is located in Denmark and forbids its U.S.-based wholesalers from selling the drug for lethal injections, while the European Union forbids its member countries from exporting drugs for executions.

Oklahoma could resort to another anesthetic never used before in executions, Massie said, or it could try to tap existing supplies of pentobarbital.

A third option, he said, would entail going back to sodium thiopental.

[Scoutmaster]

He should have said, “Fire at will!”After the execution some enterprising entrepreneur sold white t-shirts (like the prison-issue ones) with the appropriate four holes around the area of the heart, screen-printed blood stains, and the words "'Let's do it' - Gary Gilmore, January 17, 1977".

That may have been a little over the top but I assume one in good condition would fetch a nice sum on ebay these days.

In December 1976 (while Gilmore was demanding to be executed), the cast of Saturday Night Live dressed in festive Christmas clothing and sang "Let's Kill Gary Gilmore for Christmas." Unfortunately, they didn't get their Christmas wish and had to wait over three more weeks.

[Myrddin]

I don't think that would be legal, because the law requires an injection. Perhaps nitogen bubbles could be injected.

The point of the discussion was to identify a suitable alternative to being held hostage by European drug providers. The law could be amended to select a more suitable approach for death penalty executions. Nitrogen is not in short supply.