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Cook's attorneys say the state broke federal law when it imported sodium thiopental from Great Britain because it was listed in forms as being intended for "animals (food processing)," rather than humans. His lawyers also say the sodium thiopental could be ineffective, leading to severe pain during an execution. Cattani has denied that Arizona broke the law, and said the paperwork mistake came from a clerical error by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He said the state is switching to one drug because of a U.S. shortage of sodium thiopental, not because of any alleged ineffectiveness. A three-judge panel with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Friday upheld a lower court's ruling dismissing Cook's lawsuit over the drug issues, and the full court declined to address the issue over the weekend. Cook was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the July 1987 deaths of Kevin Swaney, 16, and Carlos Cruz-Ramos, 26, in Lake Havasu City, in far western Arizona. Court documents say Cook and his roommate and co-worker, John Matzke, were drunk and high on methamphetamine when they stole $97 from Cruz-Ramos, who worked with them at a restaurant and had just moved in with them. They then overpowered the Guatemalan immigrant, gagged him and tied him to a chair. Over the next six hours, Cruz-Ramos was sodomized by Cook, burned with cigarettes, cut and beaten, court documents said. After both men tried to strangle Cruz-Ramos, Matzke said he stood on a pipe over his throat until he died. Swaney, a runaway and occasional guest at the apartment who also worked at the restaurant, showed up about two hours later. Cook and Matzke tied him naked to a chair and gagged him, but Matzke said he wouldn't participate in the teen's torture and fell asleep. He awoke to see Swaney crying, and Cook told him he had sodomized the teen and that they had to kill him, court records said. The two tried to strangle the boy with a sheet. When that failed, Cook strangled him by hand, according to Matzke. They put Swaney's body in the closet on top of Cruz-Ramos'. Court records say Swaney's heart was still beating when he was left for dead. Cook was arrested after Matzke went to police the next day. Matzke testified against Cook to get a lighter sentence and was released in 2007.
[Associated
Press;
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