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| Controversial Oklahoma lethal injection drug approved by US supreme court | Controversial Oklahoma lethal injection drug approved by US supreme court |
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| The US supreme court has approved the use of the controversial sedative midazolam in Oklahoma’s execution protocols, paving the way for the state to resume executions for the first time since January. | The US supreme court has approved the use of the controversial sedative midazolam in Oklahoma’s execution protocols, paving the way for the state to resume executions for the first time since January. |
| Some states had delayed executions while they awaited the ruling in Glossip v Gross, in which the court was asked decide whether Oklahoma’s use of midazolam fell within the boundaries of the US constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. | Some states had delayed executions while they awaited the ruling in Glossip v Gross, in which the court was asked decide whether Oklahoma’s use of midazolam fell within the boundaries of the US constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. |
| A string of recent procedures have shown prisoners displaying visible signs of prolonged distress – most notoriously the execution of Clayton Lockett almost exactly one year ago, in which he thrashed and groaned on the gurney in full view of witnesses, taking 43 minutes to die. | A string of recent procedures have shown prisoners displaying visible signs of prolonged distress – most notoriously the execution of Clayton Lockett almost exactly one year ago, in which he thrashed and groaned on the gurney in full view of witnesses, taking 43 minutes to die. |
| Glossip v Gross was brought by four inmates – one of whom was executed days before the supreme court agreed to hear the case – who argued that the state’s use of midazolam amounted to cruel and unusual punishment because the drug is unreliable for inducing a coma. | Glossip v Gross was brought by four inmates – one of whom was executed days before the supreme court agreed to hear the case – who argued that the state’s use of midazolam amounted to cruel and unusual punishment because the drug is unreliable for inducing a coma. |
| Oklahoma’s protocol calls for a three-drug cocktail of the sedative midazolam, paralytic vecuronium bromide and potassium to stop the heart. Florida uses a similar cocktail, with a different level of midazolam. Ohio and Arizona – two states that also saw prolonged executions in 2014 – use midazolam in a two-drug protocol. In Missouri, midazolam is used as a sedative before the execution officially begins. | |
| In Oklahoma and across the US, drugs that once dependably formed the basis of the state’s execution protocol – sodium thiopental and pentobarbital – are now unattainable through a combination of government restrictions and the refusal of manufacturers to sell the chemicals to US prisons. | |
| Many have turned to scarcely regulated compounding pharmacies; some have purchased medicines unlawfully from abroad; and many have turned to pharmaceuticals previously unused in death chambers. | |
| In March, Akorn pharmaceuticals, one of several companies that manufacture midazolam, ordered Oklahoma to return any supplies of the sedative it had stockpiled and ordered it not to use its products to execute prisoners. | |
| Oklahoma lawmakers this year approved nitrogen gas as a new execution method, calling it a “foolproof” alternative to lethal injection. | |
| “The process is fast and painless,” said Oklahoma City Republican representative Mike Christian, a former Oklahoma highway patrol trooper who wrote the bill. “It’s foolproof.” |