skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Bulletin: Richard Glossip; Texas Prison Officials Send Virginia Sought-After Drug for Execution This Week. "Texas prison officials are helping their counterparts in Virginia prepare for a scheduled execution on Thursday by providing the state with pentobarbital, a lethal drug that corrections agencies nationwide have had difficulty obtaining."..."Robert Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death penalty organization in Washington, said the drug exchange raised concerns about government transparency. “It puts a whole new spin on the efforts by state departments of corrections for secrecy in the execution process,” Mr. Dunham said. Lawyers for Richard Glossip, a condemned Oklahoma inmate, mentioned the Texas-Virginia drug exchange when challenging Oklahoma’s plan to use midazolam during Mr. Glossip’s scheduled execution by lethal injection this week. The powerful sedative achieved notoriety after it was used in executions that took longer than expected last year in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma." Associated Press.
Countdown to Wrongful Conviction Day: Friday, October 2, 2105; 6 days. For information: http://www.aidwyc.org/wcd-2015/
"Texas prison officials are helping their counterparts in Virginia
prepare for a scheduled execution on Thursday by providing the state
with pentobarbital, a lethal drug that corrections agencies nationwide
have had difficulty obtaining. The
disclosure, which surfaced in a court filing in an Oklahoma death
penalty case, was confirmed Friday by the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice. Virginia prison officials also confirmed the trade, saying they
needed pentobarbital to replace a dose of another drug they intended to
use, midazolam, that will soon expire. A
spokesman for Texas prisons, Jason Clark, said the three vials of
pentobarbital given to Virginia had been legally purchased from a
compounding pharmacy, which he declined to name. Texas and Oklahoma are
among a handful of states with laws — being challenged by death penalty
opponents — that allow prison officials not to disclose where they get
execution drugs. Virginia
prison officials gave Texas pentobarbital to use as a backup in 2013,
and when Virginia asked for help this year, Mr. Clark said, “we
reciprocated.” “The agency has not provided compounded drugs to any other state,” he said. Robert
Dunham, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center,
an anti-death penalty organization in Washington, said the drug
exchange raised concerns about government transparency. “It
puts a whole new spin on the efforts by state departments of
corrections for secrecy in the execution process,” Mr. Dunham said. Lawyers
for Richard Glossip, a condemned Oklahoma inmate, mentioned the
Texas-Virginia drug exchange when challenging Oklahoma’s plan to use
midazolam during Mr. Glossip’s scheduled execution by lethal injection
this week. The powerful sedative achieved notoriety after it was used in
executions that took longer than expected last year in Arizona, Ohio
and Oklahoma. In
the court filing on Thursday, which is part of a multitiered effort to
stop Mr. Glossip’s execution, his lawyers argued that pentobarbital is
one of Oklahoma’s preferred execution drugs. The
lawyers cite the Virginia-Texas exchange as proof that the drug is
available, and included a photo of what they said were three bottles of
pentobarbital with April 2016 expiration dates in Texas’ possession. The
lawyers said they had obtained the photo from the Virginia Department
of Corrections through a Freedom of Information Act request. Mr.
Glossip’s lawyers also assert in their filing that Texas is
“compounding or producing pentobarbital within its department for use in
executions.” Mr. Clark denied the allegation, saying the state agency
has no authority to manufacture its own drugs. “We do not have a pharmacy license,” he said..........Texas
has carried out 528 executions since 1982, far more than any other
state. The last 24, going back to 2013, have used pentobarbital from a
compounding pharmacy as the lone drug for lethal injections. Mr.
Glossip was convicted of ordering the 1997 killing of his boss in
Oklahoma City. Another man, Justin Sneed, admitted to the killing and
said Mr. Glossip had offered him $10,000 to do it, which Mr. Glossip
denies."
