California got lethal injection drug from Britain

Corrections officials, compelled by an ACLU public records request, disclose the source of their new supply of sodium thiopental, the first drug in a three-injection sequence used for executions.

by Carol J. Williams

Los Angeles Times

December 8, 2010

Corrections officials disclosed Tuesday that they have imported a large quantity of the key drug used in lethal-injection executions and are awaiting approval of the British-made product by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation last month paid a British distributor $36,415 for 521 grams of sodium thiopental made by Archimedes Pharma, said department spokeswoman Terry Thornton.

Prison officials also acquired 12 grams of the drug at no cost from the Arizona Department of Corrections on Sept. 30, Thornton said.

That stock of the first drug used in a three-injection sequence would be sufficient to put to death about 90 condemned prisoners by the state's practices, which require 3 grams of sodium thiopental per execution plus an equivalent amount as emergency backup. Some of the drug is also needed for training purposes, Thornton noted, reducing the potential impact of the new supply.

A nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental has delayed executions in several states. California's last few grams of the drug expired in September, complicating state efforts to resume executions after a five-year hiatus.

The acquisitions were reported to U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose at the time they were made, but the source of the drug was disclosed only after the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a public records request. A San Francisco judge had given the corrections department until Tuesday to explain where it got the drug, which is no longer available from the sole U.S. manufacturer.

Sodium thiopental is a powerful barbiturate used to anesthetize condemned prisoners in lethal injection executions. California revised its execution regimen after Fogel ruled in 2006 that the previous methods posed a risk of exposing prisoners to cruel and unusual punishment, which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution.

After halting the execution of convicted killer Michael A. Morales in February 2006, Fogel heard testimony suggesting some of the 11 men executed by lethal injection in California since capital punishment was restored in 1976 had not been fully unconscious after the sodium thiopental was injected. That would have left them paralyzed by the second injection and unable to express the intense pain said to accompany the final shot, which causes cardiac arrest.

Executions have been on hold in California pending Fogel's review of whether the revised procedures meet constitutional standards. He is expected to rule early next year.

The sodium thiopental made by Archimedes Pharma was shipped ahead of Britain's decision late last month to bar exports of the drug, which is also used in surgery and to euthanize animals. All European nations have renounced capital punishment, and Britain came under fire for making the drug available to U.S. states for executions.

California has the nation's largest death row population, with 713 condemned prisoners.