4 ms·

"In 2015, the federal government seized drugs the state bought illegally off the black market. The shoddy, shady sources for the deadly cocktails have become a

"In 2015, the federal government seized drugs the state bought illegally off the black market. The shoddy, shady sources for the deadly cocktails have become a weak spot death penalty opponents have leveraged." wat?

LocalH 7y ago
Apparently the government is having to get their execution drugs off the street
Griffinsauce 7y ago
Murdering people legally is hard. It's a good indication that it _should_ be impossible.
- dade_ 7y ago
  Yes, yet another wrongly convicted of murder released. Police destroyed records: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/glen-assoun-wrongful-conviction-records-unsealed-1.5207994 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/glen-assoun-wrong... Was in Canada, but if we still had execution...
  - delinka 7y ago
    Did you reply in the right place? Not seeing how this is a reply to GP.
- javajosh 7y ago
  I say this as an opponent of the death penalty, there is nothing intrinsically difficult about killing someone, and I would guess that the ways a person can legally be killed have grown smaller and smaller over time by opponents of the practice. This is identical to the strategy used by anti-abortion advocates who chip away at access and timing and so on, and it's ethically questionable IMO.
  - roywiggins 7y ago
    There's absolutely nothing stopping states from reinstituting the firing squad: https://www.npr.org/2018/11/05/664548834/tennessee-death-row-inmates-request-death-by-firing-squad https://www.npr.org/2018/11/05/664548834/tennessee-death-row... The reason why states can't source drugs to use them for killing is because, surprise, the corporations that manufacture them refuse to sell them for that purpose.
    - pmiller2 7y ago
      The corporations refuse because they’re afraid of the PR backlash. Let’s not hide the fact that it’s all about money.
      - nulbyte 7y ago
        Fair enough, but that doesn't negate their refusal to sell them for that purpose. They refuse to sell them for that purpose because they know the state will pay far less than they would otherwise lose from public scrutiny. I'm okay with that.
        pmiller2 7y ago
        It doesn’t negate it, but it does taint it. You know that if they thought the calculation would come out the other way and they’d make money, they’d be actively soliciting prisons to buy their drugs for executions.
      - zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 7y ago
        Actually, it's simply illegal for companies in the EU to export drugs for use in executions.
        pmiller2 7y ago
        Yeah, and corporations never do illegal things for profit in the EU, either.
roywiggins 7y ago
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/execution-clayton-lockett/392069/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/executi... > In June of that year, officials in Georgia discovered a work-around: a small-time businessman in London named Mehdi Alavi, who sold wholesale drugs through a company called Dream Pharma, would ship sodium thiopental to them. Georgia bought some from him, and then Arkansas did too. With Hospira offline, Alavi had the U.S. execution market cornered. Arizona bought sodium thiopental from him in late September and used it the next month to execute a convicted murderer named Jeffrey Landrigan. California placed an order as well. > Maya Foa, an anti-death-penalty advocate based in London, saw Dream Pharma mentioned in court documents related to Landrigan’s execution and decided to pay a visit. At the company’s address, she found a small building with peeling white paint and a placard that read elgone driving academy. Inside she found two desks and, in the back of the room, a single cabinet. That was it: Dream Pharma. Alavi imported execution drugs from elsewhere in Europe and shipped them to the United States, using that cupboard in a driving school as his base of operations. ... > Since Hospira had been the only FDA-approved supplier of sodium thiopental, states that had imported it had done so illegally. Prisons had become, in effect, drug smugglers, and while the FDA may have been willing to look the other way, the DEA was not. In March 2011, agents seized Georgia’s supply of sodium thiopental. In April, they seized Tennessee’s, Kentucky’s, South Carolina’s, and Alabama’s.

LocalH 7y ago

Apparently the government is having to get their execution drugs off the street

Griffinsauce 7y ago

Murdering people legally is hard. It's a good indication that it _should_ be impossible.

dade_ 7y ago
Yes, yet another wrongly convicted of murder released. Police destroyed records: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/glen-assoun-wrongful-conviction-records-unsealed-1.5207994 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/glen-assoun-wrong... Was in Canada, but if we still had execution...
- delinka 7y ago
  Did you reply in the right place? Not seeing how this is a reply to GP.
javajosh 7y ago
I say this as an opponent of the death penalty, there is nothing intrinsically difficult about killing someone, and I would guess that the ways a person can legally be killed have grown smaller and smaller over time by opponents of the practice. This is identical to the strategy used by anti-abortion advocates who chip away at access and timing and so on, and it's ethically questionable IMO.
- roywiggins 7y ago
  There's absolutely nothing stopping states from reinstituting the firing squad: https://www.npr.org/2018/11/05/664548834/tennessee-death-row-inmates-request-death-by-firing-squad https://www.npr.org/2018/11/05/664548834/tennessee-death-row... The reason why states can't source drugs to use them for killing is because, surprise, the corporations that manufacture them refuse to sell them for that purpose.
  - pmiller2 7y ago
    The corporations refuse because they’re afraid of the PR backlash. Let’s not hide the fact that it’s all about money.
    - nulbyte 7y ago
      Fair enough, but that doesn't negate their refusal to sell them for that purpose. They refuse to sell them for that purpose because they know the state will pay far less than they would otherwise lose from public scrutiny. I'm okay with that.
      - pmiller2 7y ago
        It doesn’t negate it, but it does taint it. You know that if they thought the calculation would come out the other way and they’d make money, they’d be actively soliciting prisons to buy their drugs for executions.
    - zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 7y ago
      Actually, it's simply illegal for companies in the EU to export drugs for use in executions.
      - pmiller2 7y ago
        Yeah, and corporations never do illegal things for profit in the EU, either.

roywiggins 7y ago

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/execution-clayton-lockett/392069/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/executi... > In June of that year, officials in Georgia discovered a work-around: a small-time businessman in London named Mehdi Alavi, who sold wholesale drugs through a company called Dream Pharma, would ship sodium thiopental to them. Georgia bought some from him, and then Arkansas did too. With Hospira offline, Alavi had the U.S. execution market cornered. Arizona bought sodium thiopental from him in late September and used it the next month to execute a convicted murderer named Jeffrey Landrigan. California placed an order as well. > Maya Foa, an anti-death-penalty advocate based in London, saw Dream Pharma mentioned in court documents related to Landrigan’s execution and decided to pay a visit. At the company’s address, she found a small building with peeling white paint and a placard that read elgone driving academy. Inside she found two desks and, in the back of the room, a single cabinet. That was it: Dream Pharma. Alavi imported execution drugs from elsewhere in Europe and shipped them to the United States, using that cupboard in a driving school as his base of operations. ... > Since Hospira had been the only FDA-approved supplier of sodium thiopental, states that had imported it had done so illegally. Prisons had become, in effect, drug smugglers, and while the FDA may have been willing to look the other way, the DEA was not. In March 2011, agents seized Georgia’s supply of sodium thiopental. In April, they seized Tennessee’s, Kentucky’s, South Carolina’s, and Alabama’s.