UPDATE 8/26/2016: This story was first reported in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Nevada is the latest state to run out of drugs used to put people to death, reportsAl-Jazerra. And right when the state invested $858,000 in a luxurious new execution chamber.
Capital punishment in America does not occasion many moments for celebration, but death-penalty states’ widespread failure to find lethal injection drugs is a rare exception. Thanks to activist pressure, large pharmaceutical companies now not only refuse to provide drugs for use in American executions, but make their distributors sign contracts that pledge they won’t sell drugs to US departments of correction.
As I have reported for The Influence, that’s led to shortages of the drugs in many death-penalty states, leading them to resort to such absurd measures that it would be comical if we weren’t talking about state-sanctioned killing. Texas, Arizona and Nebraska combined brain trusts and found a businessman willing to get them drugs from India, but the drugs were promptly seized by the FDA at the border. Their vendor declined to reimburse the states for the drugs when they asked. The FDA is likely still warehousing them, Chris McDaniel at Buzzfeed reports.
Source: The Influence. Nevada Sinks $858,000 in Shiny New Execution Chamber, Runs Out of Lethal Injection Drugs
