British rights group says it's suing to stop the export of execution drug sodium thiopental to US

A British rights group says it's suing to stop the export of a sedative used to execute prisoners to the United States.

The U.S. is going through a national shortage of sodium thiopental, which is used as part of a 3-drug cocktail administered to death row inmates.

That has delayed executions and forced at least one state, Arizona, to go shopping abroad for the drug.

The revelation by U.S. officials last week that they had sourced the drug from a British company was the source of considerable unease here.

Britain bans the death penalty and lobbies forcefully against its use in other countries.

Reprieve says is acting on a request by lawyers for Tennessee death row inmate Edmund Zagorski.

Source: Canadian Press, November 2, 2010

Death penalty campaigners try to halt sales of UK-made execution drug

Vince Cable rejects ban on export of sodium thiapentol as Reprieve seeks judicial review of decision

Campaigners against the death penalty have initiated legal action to prevent a UK-manufactured anaesthetic being exported for the execution of a US prisoner.

Reprieve, the organisation which supports death row prisoners, and solicitors Leigh Day & Co launched the action after the business secretary, Vince Cable, declined to ban overseas sale of the drug, sodium thiopental.

The request for an urgent judicial review of the minister's decision is expected to be heard by the courts this week. Shipment of the drug to Tennessee is expected in the next few days.

Sodium thiopental is a strong painkiller given as the first of a cocktail of three drugs used in US state lethal injections.

Its use has been validated by the US courts. There is a severe shortage of it in the US, however, and several states have had to delay killings.

Last week Arizona confirmed that it had imported supplies of the drug from Britain in order to execute one of its inmates, Jeffery Landrigan. There is only one licensed UK manufacturer, Archimedes Pharma UK in Reading, which denies knowingly providing the drug for that purpose. The firm insists that it has no control over the drug's use once it is sold to medical suppliers.

The judicial review has been filed on behalf of the US death row prisoner Edmund Zagorski, 55, who was sentenced for killing 2 men over a drug deal in 1983. He is being represented by Reprieve; his execution in Tennessee is scheduled for 11 January next year.

A letter from Reprieve initially asked Cable to impose an immediate export ban on sodium thiopental so that investigations into its export and use could begin.

But Cable declined stating: "Sodium thiopental is a medicine. Its primary use is as an anaesthetic … Legitimate trade of medical value would be affected by any restriction on the export of this product from the UK." Any ban would be ineffective, he added, because supplies could be obtained from elsewhere.

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's director, said: "US doctors have told us they do not use this drug [as an anaesthetic] any more. I would have thought that the British government would do the right thing swiftly. It is ironic that Ed Zagorski is on death row, accused – falsely, he insists – of playing a role in a drug deal gone bad. If the British government continues to adhere to its policy of gutless inaction, he will die as a result of another drug deal gone bad, this time with a British company pocketing $18,000 in blood money."

Richard Stein, of Leigh Day & Co, said: "There is a list [of banned UK exports] which covers guillotines, gas chambers and electrocution equipment. We are simply asking Vince Cable to add sodium thiopental to this list."

Reprieve today released a sales agreement which records purchase by the authorities in Tennessee of $18,000-worth of sodium thiopental constituting four "procedures" or doses from an unnamed supplier. Archimedes declined to comment today.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "This drug is an anaesthetic with a legitimate medical use. As such, it is not subject to export controls. The British embassy in Washington is raising our concerns about the possible use of a British-manufactured drug in the US execution process."

Source: The Guardian, November 2, 2010

UK group says it's suing over US execution drug

A group opposed to the death penalty filed suit Tuesday to try to prevent a British company from exporting a drug that could be used in the execution of an American inmate.

Reprieve, a London-based legal advocacy group and the London law firm Leigh Day & Co. are suing in the hope of forcing the government to regulate the export of sodium thiopental. The sedative, which is part of the 3-drug cocktail used in lethal injections in the United States, was scheduled to be exported from Britain to Tennessee imminently, Reprieve said.

The group warned that sodium thiopental would be used in the execution of 56-year-old Edmund Zagorski, who has been convicted of committing 2 murders in 1983.

"All it would take to prevent the death of Mr. Zagorski and others" would be for Business Secretary Vince Cable to issue an emergency order regulating the export of sodium thiopental, said Reprieve spokeswoman Katherine O'Shea.

Cable's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sodium thiopental has historically been used as a general anesthetic, but is also the 1st of 3 drugs given during the lethal injection process for death row prisoners. The U.S. has a shortage of sodium thiopental and multiple states have halted or slowed the pace of lethal injections while searching for alternative sources of the drug.

Last week, Arizona Chief Deputy Attorney General Tim Nelson announced that the state obtained from Britain the sodium thiopental used to execute an inmate. The Tennessee Department of Corrections said in a memo that it would buy the drug from a British company and that it would be shipped very soon, Leigh Day attorney Richard Stein said.

Source: Washington Post, November 2, 2010