Clinton's "Little Confederacy" decides to kill people because lethal drugs might expire.

POSTED BY: DREAMTROVE
UPDATED: Sunday, April 16, 2017 00:28
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DREAMTROVE

Sunday, April 16, 2017 12:28 AM

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Drug companies take aim at Arkansas executions and demand lethal injection drugs back

UPDATE: Early Friday evening, an Arkansas judge prohibited the state from using one of the lethal injection drugs. Head here for more on that order; continue reading for more about why the drug companies objected.

As Arkansas prepares to carry out an unprecedented string of executions beginning next week, the state is facing new criticism over the lethal injection drugs it plans to use, along with questions from pharmaceutical companies about how the drugs were obtained.

On Monday, Arkansas plans to carry out two executions back to back, with the schedule calling for seven lethal injections over an 11-day period. This frantic push has caused unease among corrections officials and civil rights advocates, but authorities in the state have defended it, saying the time frame is needed because one of the state’s three lethal injection drugs will expire at the end of the month.

“It is uncertain as to whether another drug can be obtained,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said in a statement, alluding to an ongoing shortage of lethal injection drugs prompted, in part, by drug companies’ objections to their chemicals being used in executions.

[With lethal injection drugs expiring, Arkansas plans unprecedented seven executions in 11 days]

But just days before Arkansas hopes to carry out its first execution in 12 years, two pharmaceutical companies have asked a federal court to keep the state from using their drugs. They have criticized Arkansas for how it seemingly obtained the drugs, with one company saying that the state had been refunded its money and promised to return the drug, only to repeatedly break that vow.

The drug companies have also been critical of Arkansas state officials, describing repeated unsuccessful attempts to pry information out of the state and get their drugs back. At least one company says it is not even sure which drugs Arkansas might have — or if the state has them at all.
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Mystery surrounds the lethal injection drugs Arkansas plans to use due to the state’s secrecy laws. While the state has confirmed the types of drugs that will be used, it remains unclear where and when they were obtained. It’s unclear even to the companies getting involved in the legal battle over the executions because they believe their chemicals might be involved.

The lethal-injection procedure Arkansas plans to use beginning Monday evening involves three drugs. The first is midazolam, a controversial sedative that has been used in bungled or unusually long executions in Oklahoma, Ohio, Arizona and, in December, Alabama. This drug was acquired by Arkansas in 2015, just days after the Supreme Court upheld its use in Oklahoma’s executions, according to documents the state provided to The Washington Post, and is the one that officials say expires at the end of April.

After the inmates are injected with midazolam and deemed to be unconscious, officials will then inject them with vecuronium bromide, a paralytic, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

[A guide to the drugs used in lethal injections]
None Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson this week. (Kelly P. Kissel/AP)

Documents released by the state show that the vecuronium bromide was obtained in 2016 and the potassium chloride in March, the week after Hutchinson set the execution dates, but they reveal little else.

Pointing to a secrecy law shielding the state from revealing most information regarding its lethal injection drugs, the Arkansas Department of Corrections declined to say when the other drugs expire or where any of the drugs were obtained, at what cost and how much the state has on hand. In an email to The Post, a spokesman said the secrecy law “prohibits the disclosure of any information that may lead to the identification of the manufacturers or suppliers of the drugs used in an execution.”

This secrecy appears to extend to the companies that make the drugs. In a court filing this week, two companies — Fresenius Kabi USA and West

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