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"Drug Shortage Disrupts Lethal-Injection Mix"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this new ABC News piece discussing both yesterday's new that the DEA has seized Georgia's lethal injection drugs (background here) and today's new that Texas is changing a key drug in its protocol.  Here ae the details: Prison officials in two states have been forced to take dramatic measures in the past 24 hours because one of the drugs used to carry out executions by lethal injection is no longer manufactured in the United States. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said today that because its supply of sodium thiopenthal has expired, it will change its three-drug protocol.  Effective immediately, pentobarbital will now be substituted for sodium thiopenthal, officials said. Both drugs are used to induce a coma-like unconsciousness...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 16, 2011 (boomark / email).