What is the difference from a pain standpoint between death by lethal injection and death by electrocution or the gas chamber? Seems like the needle would be much less painful.
Texas refuses to give back lethal drugs, plans to proceed with executionBy Barnini Chakraborty
Published October 09, 2013
WASHINGTON – The scheduled execution of a man convicted of killing his parents will proceed as planned Wednesday night, Texas authorities tell FoxNews.com, despite a growing controversy over the drug being used to carry out the punishment.
Last week, state prison officials refused a request from the compounding pharmacy that created and sold Texas the pentobarbital -- a single-dose drug used in executions -- to return the drug.
Jasper Lovoi, owner of The Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy, claims Texas authorities put him “in the middle of a firestorm” of protesters, hate calls and press requests after letting it leak that he sold eight 2.5-gram doses of pentobarbital to the state for upcoming executions.
Lovoi says he had been promised anonymity by the state.
But Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said the department bought the drug vials legally and won’t return them.
Clark said the state has enough vials to carry out scheduled executions for the remainder of the year.
Death penalty states like Texas, which has executed 505 people since 1981, have been turning to compounding pharmacies to purchase lethal doses of barbiturates used in executions.
The switch comes after the drugs’ primary makers shut off supplies to states following pressure from anti-death penalty advocates.
Compounding pharmacies allow certified specialists to mix ingredients for medicine themselves and sell them. For example, if there is only an adult-dose of a particular drug available, compounding pharmacists can manipulate the active ingredients and change the dosage or strength.
However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not vouch for the validity, safety or effectiveness of drugs made in compounding pharmacies.
Earlier this year, these new go-to drug dens came under scrutiny following a deadly meningitis outbreak that was linked to contaminated injections made at a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy.
In Texas, attorneys for Michael Yowell, 43, hope to get a last-minute stay for their client. Yowell is scheduled to be put to death via lethal injection at 6 p.m. central time (7 p.m. ET) at the state’s execution chamber in Huntsville, Texas.
He was convicted of killing his parents, Johnny and Carol Yowell, in 1998 and setting fire to their home in Lubbock, Texas. According to court records, Yowell told authorities he shot his father and then beat, strangled and killed his mother. He then blew up the house.
Yowell’s grandmother, who lived with them, was killed though Yowell was not convicted in her death.
Yowell and two other death row inmates have filed a suit against the state over the use of compounding pharmacies in capital punishment cases. They argue that using untested drugs during an execution violates a person’s constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment.
"Use of compounded pentobarbital would constitute a significant change in the lethal injection protocol, a change that adds an unacceptable risk of pain, suffering and harm to the plaintiffs if and when they are executed," the lawsuit says.
The suit also raises questions about the lack of regulation related to compounding pharmacies which it says is “not subject to stringent FDA regulations” and is “one of the leading sources for counterfeit drugs entering the US.”
Last month, the House passed legislation aimed at regulating compounding pharmacies. The bill, which is now in the Senate, would create a national set of standards to track the distribution chain of pharmaceuticals. Proponents say the bill closes a pretty wide gap between state and federal oversight of compounding pharmacies. In the Massachusetts meningitis outbreak, 64 people died and more than 700 people got sick across 20 states from a bad batch of steroids produced at the New England Compounding Center.
Other states like South Dakota and Georgia have had similar problems with purchasing drugs directly through manufacturers.
Georgia's first use of an execution drug obtained through a compounding pharmacy was put on hold in July after the condemned inmate challenged a new state law that bars the release of information about where Georgia obtains its execution drug.
Separately, on Tuesday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a motion made by Yowell’s attorneys who asked to supervise “every step of the execution process.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/09/texas-execution-to-proceed-despite-controversy-over-drug-and-compounding/
