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Brandi Grissom on the Sodium Thiopental Shortage

By Steve Hall

The Texas Tribune journalist contributes, "A Drug Used in Executions Becomes Very Hard to Get," to the Southwest edition of the Sunday New York Times. A combination of market forces and European objections to the death penalty have left the nation?s busiest execution chamber with only enough of a key drug ? sodium thiopental ? to use for two convicted murderers scheduled to die later this month. Like most of the 35 states that have the death penalty, Texas has relied on a three-drug cocktail: sodium thiopental, which is an anesthetic to render the inmate unconscious, and two drugs to stop the heart and lungs and cause death. Last month, the only American producer of sodium thiopental, Illinois-based Hospira Inc., announced it would stop selling the drug, which it had planned to manufacture in an Italian plant, after Italian authorities wanted a guarantee that the drug would not be used in capital punishment...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on February 07, 2011 (boomark / email).