From the Kentucky Herald-Leader:

Three Death Row inmates say the three-drug cocktail used in lethal injections have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for executions and want a federal judge to issue an injunction to stop the state from using the drugs until it complies with federal drug laws.

Not a joke and not The Onion. Let me correct myself, it is a joke but no doubt the defense attorneys are serious.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, three fine individuals who have been sentenced to die for their violent crimes say that because the three drugs — thiopental sodium, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride — are considered controlled substances, they must be prescribed by a doctor. Sodium thiopental must also be injected by a doctor licensed to administer the drug.

In Kentucky, the Department of Corrections obtains and administers the drugs. The American Medical Association ethics guidelines and state lethal injection protocol prohibit doctors from participating in lethal injections.e

Since there seems to be no shortage of doctors willing to participate in Medicare fraud, would it be so hard for state of Kentucky get one of these to write out a prescription for sodium thiopental or at least a generic version of it?

tags: overlawyered death row

h/t: Marginal Revolution

This entry was posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 am by Insider and is filed under Your Tax Dollars In Action. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.