Sole Provider of Drug for U.S. Executions Faces Ethical Dilemma
The Death Penalty Information Center reports that “Lundbeck Inc., a Danish pharmaceutical company that is the sole manufacturer of pentobarbital for sale in the U.S., is facing an ethical dilemma regarding the use of its drug in executions.” Denmark opposes capital punishment, as does the rest of the European Union. The company has written letters to prisons in eleven states demanding that their product not be used for executions; so far no responses have been received. The dilemma, as reported in the Global Post, is that “Pentobarbital is also used in the treatment of seizures in humans and in anesthesia and euthanasia of animals. Only Lundbeck still manufactures the drug for purchase in the United States.” As a result, many doctors have written to the company asking them NOT to suspend distribution of the drug.
There Is No ‘Humane’ Execution
That is the editorial judgment of the New York Times, rendered after Ohio – one of the Issue Team’s target states – executed Kenneth Biros on December 8, 2009. Biros was, in effect, a human guinea pig, being the first person on whom a newly developed one-drug protocol was ever used. The one drug replaced a series of three drugs, a procedure which had resulted in three botched executions since 2006. “Ohio should not have used it without a more public airing of its strengths and weaknesses, with input from medical and legal authorities,” wrote the Times. They went on to say that, in the words of Justice Harry Blackmun, the state was simply “tinkering with the machinery of death.”
Writing about Ohio’s new procedure a Team member wrote to his local paper, “The death penalty is plagued with problems — geographic and racial imbalance; high costs; the possibility of an innocent person being executed — so there may be a method to Ohio’s madness. Divert attention from these serious flaws by a wave of the hand, now flashing just one syringe where there used to be three. It is an old magician’s trick to keep the audience from spotting the truth. But in this case, we must not be fooled. The death penalty system was riddled with problems and no fancy hand- waving can make them disappear.”
Supreme Court Upholds Lethal Injection Protocol
On April 16, 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 7-2 ruling upholding the constitutionality of the lethal injection protocol used by the federal government and nearly all of the 36 states which still have the death penalty. Reacting to the announcement the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) said the Baze v. Rees decision sidesteps the critical issues surrounding the death penalty debate in the U.S. “The death penalty system was a flawed public policy before the Supreme Court agreed to review Kentucky’s lethal injection protocol,” said NCADP Executive Director Diann Rust-Tierney. “It was a flawed public policy while the Court debated the protocol. And now that the Court has ruled, it remains as deeply a flawed public policy as ever.”
The last execution in the US was in September 2007, marking the beginning of a de facto moratorium while the Court considered the case. As a result of the decision analysts expect execution dates to be set quickly, at least in some states such as Texas. However, many observers are also expecting a wave of new litigation, partly because of the nature of the decision: the 7 votes in favor of the judgment were assembled from 6 different opinions, some of which raised additional questions.
For example, quoting from the syllabus released in connection with the ruling: “Justice Stevens concluded that instead of ending the controversy, this case will generate debate not only about the constitutionality of the … protocol … but also about the justification for the death penalty itself.” To read more please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/us/16cnd-lethal.html?hp or http://www.ncadp.org/news.cfm?articleID=212.
Something to Think About
The November 10, 2007 issue of Newsweek included an article by Evan Thomas and Martha Brant discussing the atmosphere surrounding the death penalty as the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s ruling in Baze v. Rees. They write that “The new reluctance to punish by killing is part of a historical trend” and they ask a cautionary question: will the Supreme Court end up improving the lethal injection procedures and, in effect, raising the standards for killing humans up to those for killing animals?
You can read the article by clicking here: “Injection of Reflection,”Newsweek, November 10, 2007).
Lethal Injections: In court, and in the news…
Federal courts in California and Missouri have recently delayed hearings in two separate high-profile cases involving lethal injections. The delays will allow the parties more time to gather information. The issue of lethal injection has recently emerged as one of the most important fronts in efforts to abolish the death penalty. On April 24 Human Rights Watch issued a report calling on states to suspend the practice pending intensive review. Quoting from their press release: “Incompetence, negligence, and irresponsibility by U.S. states put condemned prisoners at needless risk of excruciating pain during lethal injection executions. Lethal injections are used in 37 of the 38 death penalty states in the United States and by the federal government. Every execution in 2005 was by lethal injection. The 65-page report, “So Long as They Die: Lethal Injections in the United States,” reveals the slipshod history of executions by lethal injection, using a protocol created three decades ago with no scientific research, nor modern adaptation, and still unchanged today." To read the report click here and the read the ten -page summary with recommendations click here.
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