(CNN) -- The state of Arizona executed convicted killer Jeffrey Landrigan (left) late Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the lethal injection, a corrections official said.
The execution was carried out at 10:26 p.m. (12:26 a.m. ET), said Barrett Marson, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Corrections.
"I'd like to say 'thank you' to my family for being here and all of my friends," were Landrigan's final words, according to Marson. He concluded with "Boomer Sooner," a cheer often used by University of Oklahoma fans.
Landrigan's last meal consisted of steak, fried okra, french fries, strawberry ice cream and a Dr. Pepper, Marson said.
The way for the execution was cleared after a majority of Supreme Court justices moved to vacate a federal judge's order that had temporarily stopped the execution scheduled for earlier in the day.
In a 5-4 decision, the court overturned two lower court rulings.
Earlier Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had sided with U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver, who blocked Landrigan's execution 18 hours before it was set to happen at noon MT Tuesday (2 p.m. ET).
Landrigan's attorneys filed a civil rights complaint last Thursday alleging the planned execution violated his constitutional rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and to due process. On Monday, Silver issued the temporary stay after concluding that the state did not provide Landrigan's side enough information to make its case sufficiently about the safety and legality of substances that would have been used to kill him.
But the U.S. Supreme Court ruling vacated the lower court order, saying "there is no evidence in the record to suggest that the drug obtained from a foreign source is unsafe." (See related article below)
Judge Silver wrote that she "was left to speculate" that the drug was harmful, but in a statement the Supreme Court, citing a different 1993 ruling, concluded in a one-page order that sentiment should not equate to the fact it was "sure or likely to cause serious illness or needless suffering."
"There was no showing that the drug was unlawfully obtained, nor was there an offer of proof to that effect," the Supreme Court ruling said.
The decision to vacate the order was supported by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sided with Silver and would not have vacated the ruling.
In 1989, Landrigan escaped from an Oklahoma prison, where he was serving time for second-degree murder. He was convicted of strangling Chester Dean Dyer in Arizona a year later during an armed burglary, and a trial judge sentenced him to death.
Source: CNN.com, October 27, 2010
Arizona goes overseas for lethal injection drug
FLORENCE, Ariz. – Facing a nationwide shortage of a lethal injection drug, Arizona has taken an unusual step that other death penalty states may soon follow: get their supplies from another country.
Such a move, experts say, raises questions about the effectiveness of the drug. But it also may further complicate executions in the 35 states that allow them, as inmates challenge the use of drugs not approved by federal inspectors for use in the U.S.
Arizona said Tuesday that it got its sodium thiopental from Great Britain, the first time a state has acknowledged obtaining the drug from outside the United States since the shortage began slowing executions in the spring.
"This drug came from a reputable place," Chief Deputy Attorney General Tim Nelson said. "There's all sorts of wild speculation that it came from a third-world country, and that's not accurate."
Nelson said the state revealed the drug's origins to let the public know that its supply is trustworthy and to dispel rumors. However, he did not name the company that manufactured it.
Without assurances of the drug's quality, many questions will be raised, including its effectiveness and how it should be handled, and would serve as a basis for lawsuits, said Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University.
"The impact could be huge," Denno said. "The source of the thiopental is critical."
Tuesday night, Arizona executed Jeffrey Landrigan for a 1989 murder in the state's first execution since 2007. Landrigan died by injection at a state prison in Florence at 10:26 p.m. after a stay issued by a federal judge was lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Landrigan's lawyers had argued he could be suffocated painfully if the sodium thiopental doesn't render him unconscious. In lethal injections, sodium thiopental makes an inmate unconscious before a second drug paralyzes him and a third drug stops his heart.
Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., the sole U.S. manufacturer of the drug, has blamed the shortage on unspecified problems with its raw-material suppliers and said new batches will not be available until January at the earliest.
There are no FDA-approved overseas manufacturers of the drug.
The limited supply has also directly affected executions in California, Kentucky and Oklahoma, and may affect executions in Missouri, which says its supply of sodium thiopental expires in January.
California officials say they acquired a dosage of 12 grams in September with a 2014 expiration date. But there was some dispute about the source. Hospira said its remaining supplies expire next year and California could only have obtained it elsewhere.
The state prison system would not address the discrepancy. "The state obtained the sodium thiopental lawfully from within the United States," Terry Thornton, a corrections spokeswoman told The Associated Press.
Ohio, which spends about $350 for the drug for each execution, ran out of the amount prescribed by state procedures just three days before a May 13 execution. The state obtained enough in time but won't say where.
A few weeks ago, Kentucky's governor held off signing death warrants setting execution dates for two inmates because the state is almost out of sodium thiopental. The state's lone dose expired Oct. 1.
Officials say they have tried unsuccessfully to get the drug from other states, and have gotten calls from states looking for it.
In August, an Oklahoma judge delayed the execution of Jeffrey Matthews when the state tried to switch anesthetics after running out of its regular supply in August. Matthews was convicted of killing his 77-year-old great-uncle during a 1994 robbery.
Oklahoma finally found enough sodium thiopental from another state, but the court-ordered delay continues.
The controversy could end if Hospira resumes making the drug next year as indicated, or states could switch to another drug.
At least 15 states, including Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Texas and Tennessee, might be able to switch drugs without a new law or administrative process, death penalty expert Megan McCracken said.
In Arizona, officials at the state prison waited for the high court's decision for much of the day. The execution had been set for 10 a.m. Tuesday, but a ruling by a federal judge in Phoenix that had been upheld by an appeals court panel put the execution on hold until the evening.
The delay, prosecutors say, is one reason the public has lost some faith in the criminal justice system.
"We're 20 years in and we're not arguing over guilt or innocence," said interim Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, whose office prosecuted Landrigan in the 1989 killing of Chester Dyer during a robbery. "We have lawyers fighting lawyers."
In recent years, lethal injections have run into high-profile problems, including botched executions.
Ohio and Washington have switched from a three-drug method to a single, powerful dose of sodium thiopental. The change helps avoid litigation over pain that inmates could suffer from the second and third drugs if they haven't been knocked out.
The switch doesn't affect the drug's administration, which has led to a number of fumbled executions, including a September 2009 procedure in Ohio in which the governor stopped an execution after two hours when officials couldn't find a usable vein.
The issue will come down to whether an overseas version of sodium thiopental would be equivalent to what the FDA has approved here, said Ty Alper, associate director of the death penalty clinic at the University of California-Berkeley.
"It really opens the door to Eighth Amendment challenges that go to the heart of whether executions work the way they're supposed to," he said, referring to the amendment about prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.
Source: AP, October 27, 2010
Arizona executes inmate after federal judge lifts stay
In only the 2nd Arizona execution since 2000, convicted killer Jeffrey Landrigan died by lethal injection late Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court removed the last legal barrier.
His death came shortly after a curtain opened into the execution room at 10:14 p.m. Tuesday. The condemned man looked quizzically at roughly 27 people gathered to witness the event. He smiled to friends and family, his lip curling slightly under his reddish mustache.
When asked for any last words, he said in a strong voice with a heavy Oklahoma accent: "Well, I'd like to say thank you to my family for being here and all my friends, and Boomer Sooner," a reference to the University of Oklahoma Sooners.
He looked around and smiled again. Then, as the 1st drug -- sodium thiopental -- took effect, he slowly closed his eyes. A medical technician entered to check that he was fully sedated. Then the execution continued.
Death was pronounced at 10:26 p.m. and the curtain closed.
Landrigan had been on Arizona's death row for 20 years for the 1989 murder of Chester Dean Dyer in Phoenix.
Landrigan's execution at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence moved relatively quickly after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a temporary restraining order that had been imposed Monday by a U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix and affirmed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court imposed the order as it tried to force Arizona to disclose where and how it had obtained its supply of sodium thiopental, 1 of 3 drugs used in Arizona executions. Attorneys had been battling for days over the issue.
The high court, in a terse 1-page order issued after 7 p.m. Tuesday, agreed by a 5-4 decision with Arizona prosecutors that there was no reason to force disclosure.
"There was no showing that the drug was unlawfully obtained, nor was there an offer of proof to that effect," the court order said.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented, voting to keep the stay in place.
Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and John Roberts were in the majority, lifting the stay.
Going into Landrigan's final weekend, intensive legal maneuvering by his defense team had sought re-examination of DNA evidence obtained in the case, as well as disclosure of how the state legally obtained its thiopental. Simultaneous arguments were raised in both state and federal courts.
Thiopental is a barbiturate that renders the condemned person unconscious so he or she cannot feel suffocation or pain induced by the 2nd and 3rd drugs administered during execution.
The sole U.S. manufacturer and only apparent supplier of thiopental approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has temporarily ceased production of the drug. Landrigan's attorneys wanted assurances that Arizona's thiopental had been lawfully obtained and would be effective, so as not to constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
The state resisted disclosing the information, citing a state law concealing the identities of executioners and all people with "ancillary" functions needed to carry out the execution. However, Attorney General Terry Goddard revealed to an Arizona Republic reporter late Monday that the drug had come from Britain.
On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court rejected a stay based on the DNA matter, leaving only the federal stay in place. When an appellate panel late Tuesday afternoon agreed to leave the federal restraining order in place until Arizona disclosed more about its thiopental supply, Goddard immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Within several hours, the high court lifted the stay, noting: "There is no evidence in the record to suggest that the drug obtained from a foreign source is unsafe. The district court granted the restraining order because it was left to speculate as to the risk of harm. . . . But speculation cannot substitute for evidence that the use of the drug is 'sure or very likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering.'"
That sent the Arizona Department of Corrections into motion to carry out the execution. The department had been poised all day, since Landrigan's execution originally had been scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday. Landrigan had already eaten what everyone thought would be his last meal Monday night.
Landrigan's execution is the 1st in Arizona since May 2007, when Robert Comer was put to death for shooting a Florida man at a campground near Apache Lake in 1987.
Comer was the 1st person executed in Arizona since 2000 because the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision that centered on another Arizona murderer, changed the way that death penalties are imposed in the U.S. Until that decision, judges in Arizona and some other states determined whether a convicted murderer was sentenced to death or to life in prison. Now juries do the sentencing.
Landrigan was supposed to be executed Nov. 1, 2007, but another case in the U.S. Supreme Court, this time regarding the constitutionality of execution by lethal injection, put his execution on hold.
That case was decided in 2008, and Arizona had overhauled its own lethal injection protocol by 2009, clearing the way to resume executions.
With Landrigan's execution, there are 133 people on Arizona's death row.
Meanwhile, there are 79 capital cases awaiting trial in Maricopa County, 3 in trial, and 7 in which defendants have been found guilty of first-degree murder but have not yet been sentenced.
Landrigan becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Arizonad and the24th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1992.
Landrigan becomes the 44th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1232nd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
The British company making a business out of killing
The company supplying sodium thiopental for the execution of Jeffrey Landrigan should be named and shamed
There are plenty of Americans who think that Jeffrey Landrigan should have been executed at 10am local time today, but it seems that Arizona has run out of a legal supply of sodium thiopental, one of the drugs used for lethal injections in 34 states. Today, blogs are full of offers by volunteers who would like to take the task upon themselves – whether with a gun ("There's no shortage of lead"), a baseball bat or their own cocktail of poisonous liquids.
However, yesterday federal judge Roslyn Silver stayed the execution. There is only one legal source of sodium thiopental in the United States, which is the pharmaceutical company Hospira. The drug is only the first step in a three-stage process but, according to the supreme court, "[i]t is uncontested that, failing a proper dose of sodium thiopental that would render [a] prisoner unconscious, there is a substantial ... risk of suffocation ... and pain from the injection" of the two subsequent drugs. Hospira recently refused to play any further role in capital punishment, insisting that the company is in the business of saving lives, rather than taking them.
Landrigan is severely brain damaged, probably as a result of his biological mother's drug abuse during his pregnancy. Once out of the womb, he was handed to an alcoholic adoptive mother who would pass out each day after drinking a bottle of vodka. Notwithstanding this, the supreme court ruled – by the narrowest of margins, five to four – that such evidence would have made no difference to the sentencing judge. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that "the poor quality of Landrigan's alleged mitigating evidence prevented him from making 'a colorable claim'" that the trial judge would have spared his life.
How wrong human beings can be. More recently, another judge – this time, the one who originally decided that Landrigan should die – has sworn out an affidavit saying that she would never have imposed a death sentence had she known about his mental defects.
Yet many still believe he should be put to death. Seemingly among their number is an anonymous British corporation. Yesterday, Arizona attorney general Terry Goddard, when asked for the identity of the supplier, conceded that the drug was imported from Britain, but refused to name the company.
Judge Silver found it "perplexing" that Goddard would insist on secrecy for the source of Jeffrey Landrigan's execution drugs. Hers was a judicious choice of words, and one might scrabble for something harsher. One question that immediately springs to mind is whether it is criminal for the British corporation to profit from such a killing: while the language is loose, EU Council Regulation 1236/2005 takes a step along this path, making it illegal to "trade in certain goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment ..."
The morality of it all is a separate issue, and Hospira's judgment was correct. When the veil of secrecy is inevitably sundered, this British corporation should be reminded that the medical profession boasts of a Hippocratic oath, not a hypocritical one.
Source: The Guardian, October 27, 2010