More: {10.02.14}Florida's high court ordered an evidentiary review of the state's use of midazolam, a sedative, in capital punishment by injection. Convict Paul Howell's appeal for a stay was lifted and he was scheduled for execution on February 26th before the state supreme court ordered the evidentiary hearing on the question: does the use of midazolam in the the three drug mixture violates the defendant's protection against "cruel and unusual" punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Only Florida uses the drug in a three drug protocol. Ohio and Louisiana currently use it their two drug procedure. The court wants information from the drug manufacturer concerning its use in executions. A suit was filed in Ohio by the children of Douglas McGuire last week when the two drug combination reportedly caused him to suffer visibly during his execution. A shortage of sodium thiopental has caused several states to modify their execution procedures. American manufacturers stopped making the drug in the US in 2009. Hospira, the last manufacturer supplying the drug for lethal injections stopped importation in January of 2011 In 2011 DEA seized Georgia's supply of the drug to investigate whether it was properly imported. Kentucky and Tennessee turned in their supplies after the seizure.
{30.01.14}States seeking to execute prisoners are having increasing difficulties finding the drugs potent enough to kill quickly and allegedly without pain. Some manufacturers of lethal drugs are refusing to supply them for executions, so authorities are turning to untested and unregulated drugs from compounding pharmacies. Compounded drugs are not approved by the FDA, and the state procurement process is being shrouded in official secrecy. When Ohio executed Dennis McGuire, it used a mixture of two untried drugs because the maker of the previously used drug refused to supply it for capital punishment. The lethal cocktail did not work very well. McGuire took 15 minutes to die and appeared to suffer from air starvation as he snorted and gasped. Ohio used an intravenous dose of the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone. Last year, Missouri scheduled to kill two convicted murderers using propofol, a common anesthetic, but changed plans after the German manufacturer asked for the drug to be return on the grounds the company would risk EU sanctions. Missouri turned to pentobarbital supplied by an unregulated compounding pharmacy. Lethal injection is now the primary method of execution in 32 states after previously used methods were judged to be too inhuman. The electrocution of murderer John Evans in Alabama took 14 minutes. Sparks and flames flew from his head as three attempts were made to end his life. Twice a pulse was found on his charred body. Jimmy Lee Gray convulsed for minutes in Mississippi's gas chamber and banged his head repeatedly against a steel pole before expiring.However, death penalty opponents are concerned lethal injections can cause extreme pain, and untested combinations may increase the risk of cruel and unusual punishment. In December 2006 it took 34 minutes and a second round of injections for Angel Diaz to die in Florida. An autopsy showed the first injections were botched: his arms showed chemical burns and needles were pushed through veins into soft tissue. He probably died from progressive suffocation and experienced potassium-induced sensation of burning according to a research paper. Several inmates have survived botched executions to tell of their painfully barbaric experiences. Execution states employed a three drug formula for decades until a US company that supplied one of the key ingredients, the barbiturate sodium thiopental, stopped making it. EU manufacturers have sought to block the use of their products for executions in the US. Research has shown that the death penalty is significantly more expensive than life-long incarceration. California has spent about $4 billion to maintain capital punishment since 1978, but has executed only 13 prisoners. The Arkansas Attorney General, whose state has not executed a prisoner since 2005, describes the capital punishment system in the US as "completely broken".