execution drugs

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Texas Executes Man Who Claimed Intellectual Disability

Arthur Lee Burton killed a woman jogging near her Houston home in 1997

(Newser) - A Texas man who claimed an intellectual disability in a late attempt at a reprieve was executed Wednesday evening for the killing of a woman who was jogging near her Houston home more than 27 years ago, the AP reports. Arthur Lee Burton, 54, received a lethal injection at the...

Report: Texas Bought Its Execution Drug From 'Pill Mill'

NPR probe finds state scooped up pentobarbital made by San Antonio compound pharmacy

(Newser) - When Texas tried in the past to get its hands on pentobarbital, a drug used in lethal injections there to mixed success, pharmaceutical companies said they wanted no part of the execution circuit. The state apparently found another conduit. After a review of federal DEA records and files from the...

After 'Years of Effort,' Indiana's Death Penalty May Resume

Officials finally get hands on pentobarbital for lethal injections, though it's not clear from where

(Newser) - The state of Indiana hasn't put someone to death in 15 years, but that streak is soon about to be broken. GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb announced on Wednesday that he and fellow Republican Todd Rokita, the state's attorney general, are seeking to execute 49-year-old Joseph Corcoran, with Rokita...

Supreme Court Sides With Alabama Death Row Inmate

Says Kenneth Smith should be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia

(Newser) - The US Supreme Court on Monday sided with an Alabama death row inmate, who had his lethal injection called off at the last minute in November, and argues he should be put to death by nitrogen hypoxia when he is ultimately executed, the AP reports. Justices without comment rejected the...

At Oklahoma Execution, a Rare Occurrence

John Marion Grant vomited, convulsed as he was being put to death

(Newser) - Oklahoma administered the death penalty Thursday on a man who convulsed and vomited as he was executed for the 1998 slaying of a prison cafeteria worker, ending a six-year execution moratorium brought on by concerns over its execution methods, the AP reports. John Marion Grant, 60, who was strapped to...

2 Oklahoma Death Row Inmates Get Reprieve

Federal appeals court granted stays of execution Wednesday

(Newser) - A federal appeals court granted stays of execution on Wednesday for two Oklahoma inmates who were scheduled to receive lethal injections in the coming weeks, the AP reports. A three-member panel of the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stays for death row inmates John Marion Grant, who...

After Wave of 13 Federal Executions, a Halt

Department of Justice reviewing policies

(Newser) - After the Trump administration restarted federal executions following a 17-year hiatus, Donald Trump oversaw 13 executions —more than any US president since the 1800s, Reuters reports. (Those executions also included the first woman put to death by the federal government in almost seven decades.) On Thursday, US Attorney...

South Carolina Judge Won't Block 2 Controversial Executions

They're scheduled for June 18 and June 25

(Newser) - A South Carolina judge on Tuesday refused to block two executions set for later this month as she considers a lawsuit over the state’s new capital punishment law, which effectively forces condemned prisoners to choose to die by either the electric chair or firing squad. State Circuit Judge Jocelyn...

Convicted Killer Wants Firing Squad Considered

Nevada inmate's lawyers say 3-drug combo state wants to use is cruel and unusual

(Newser) - A convicted killer who is fighting a possible June execution date that would make him the first person put to death in Nevada in 15 years is calling for the state to consider the firing squad as an option, a rare method in the United States. Attorneys for Zane Michael...

AP: Executioners' Accounts Didn't Sync With What We Saw

It weighs in on the 13 federal executions it witnessed as a member of the media

(Newser) - Executioners who put 13 inmates to death in the last months of the Trump administration likened the process of dying by lethal injection to falling asleep and called gurneys "beds" and final breaths "snores." But those tranquil accounts are at odds with reports by the AP and...

Lawyer: Client's Execution Delay 'Unprecedented'

SC officials say they can't obtain drugs needed to put Richard Bernard Moore to death by Friday

(Newser) - South Carolina prison officials say they have to delay an execution scheduled for Friday because they won't be able to obtain the necessary lethal injection drugs. An attorney for the state Department of Corrections wrote in a letter to the South Carolina Supreme Court last week that the agency...

Inmate Uses Last Words to Forgive Victim's Family

Donnivan Schaeffer's parents say they weren't expecting an apology anyway

(Newser) - There was no apology given nor remorse shown before Charles Rhines was put to death in South Dakota Monday night for murdering Donnivan Schaeffer in 1992—but with his last words, Rhines did "forgive" Schaeffer's family, the Rapid City Journal reports. "Ed and Peggy Schaeffer, I forgive...

Nebraska Uses Fentanyl to Kill Prisoner, a First

Carey Dean Moore was put to death Tuesday

(Newser) - For the first time, fentanyl has been used in the execution of a US prisoner. Carey Dean Moore was put to death via lethal injection at the Nebraska State Penitentiary Tuesday morning using a previously untested combination of four drugs: fentanyl citrate, the powerful synthetic opioid blamed for deadly overdoses...

Judge Halts Nevada's Controversial Execution Plan

Drugmaker accused state of using 'subterfuge' to obtain one of the drugs

(Newser) - A Nevada judge effectively put the execution of a two-time killer on hold Wednesday after a pharmaceutical company objected to the use of one of its drugs to put someone to death, the AP reports. Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez disallowed the use of the drug in a ruling...

Their Client Wants to Die; They're Worried About How

Lawyers for death row inmate not asking for a stay, but wouldn't mind hitting 'pause'

(Newser) - Scott Dozier is scheduled to die via lethal injection Nov. 14, and he's ready for his execution—he requested last year that his appeals stop, and he has an agreement with his defense attorneys not to seek a delay—but his lawyers have concerns about the method that will...

Fentanyl Will Be Used in Upcoming Nevada Execution
Fentanyl Will Be Used in
Upcoming Nevada Execution
in case you missed it
Sep 3, 2017 3:10 PM CDT

Fentanyl Will Be Used in Upcoming Nevada Execution

Along with two other drugs in an un-tested combination

(Newser) - "This is not actually science," anesthesiologist Joel Zivot tells the Marshall Project . "It’s not actually medicine. It is a grotesque impersonation of those things." Nevada officials announced in August the state will be carrying out an execution—its first in more than a decade—with...

Man Says Nothing as Florida Executes Him With New Drug

Mark Asay is first white man state has executed for killing a black man

(Newser) - Florida on Thursday put a man to death with an anesthetic never used before in a US lethal injection , carrying out its first execution in more than 18 months on an inmate convicted of two racially motivated murders. Authorities said 53-year-old Mark Asay—the first white man executed in Florida...

With Arkansas Executions Set to Begin, a New Foe Steps Up

Drugmakers say they don't want their drugs used in capital punishment

(Newser) - Two pharmaceutical companies asked a federal judge Thursday to prevent Arkansas from using their drugs to execute seven inmates by the end of the month, saying they object to their products being used for capital punishment, reports the AP . Fresenius Kabi USA and West-Ward Pharmaceuticals Corp. were granted permission to...

Arizona Suggests 'Do-It-Yourself' Executions

Lawyers for death row inmates need only bring the drugs

(Newser) - It's "unprecedented, wholly novel and frankly absurd," a lethal injection expert says of Arizona's new death penalty plan, which includes a provision for what one columnist calls a "do-it-yourself execution." Under the plan, the Arizona Department of Corrections—which has been unable to acquire...

Ohio Resuming Executions After 3-Year Moratorium

State will use a new 3-drug combination

(Newser) - Ohio plans to resume executions in January with a new three-drug combination after an unofficial three-year moratorium blamed on shortages of lethal drugs, an attorney representing the state told a federal judge Monday. Thomas Madden with the Ohio attorney general's office said the state will use the drugs midazolam,...

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