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 Missouri and several other U.S. states that have the death penalty
have increasingly been forced to look for alternate drugs and
sources of drugs for executions as pharmaceutical companies have
raised objections to their products being used in capital
punishment.
Some states have turned to so-called compounding pharmacies, which
produce small amounts of drugs by prescription and are not regulated
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, prompting defense
attorneys to question the quality of the drugs and whether they
could cause undue pain during an execution.
U.S. District Court Judge Terence Kern on Wednesday afternoon
granted a temporary restraining order preventing one such pharmacy,
The Apothecary Shoppe, from supplying compounded pentobarbital to
the Missouri Department of Corrections.
The order came after Taylor's attorneys argued in a federal lawsuit
filed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this week that he could suffer "severe,
unnecessary, lingering and ultimately inhumane pain" if the drug is
used.
"This is not an acceptable method for carrying out executions — to
use an unlawful and dangerous drug — so we are hoping to stop that
from happening," Matthew Hellman, one of Taylor's defense attorneys,
told Reuters late on Wednesday.
The state has used compounded pentobarbital, a fast-acting
barbiturate, in its recent executions.
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The lawsuit sought a restraining order as well as an injunction
preventing the pharmacy from delivering the drug for Taylor's
execution, Hellman said.
It was unclear whether the pharmacy had already delivered the drug.
An evidentiary hearing was set for Tuesday.
The increasing use of in some cases untested compounded drugs has
revived the debate over the death penalty in the United States.
In Oklahoma, an inmate said he felt burning through his body when
the drugs used to kill him were injected during an execution in
early January. Taylor's attorneys cited the Oklahoma case in their
lawsuit, Hellman said.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle;
editing by Kevin Liffey)
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