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Texas to execute mentally disabled prisoner today using Lundbeck drugs

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Texas is set to execute a man who has been assessed as ‘intellectually disabled’ today (21 June), in defiance of a US Supreme Court ruling that such practices are unconstitutional.

Milton Mathis, who has been assessed as having an IQ of 62 – well below the widely accepted threshold of 70 – will also be the 16th prisoner to be killed in the US using lethal injection drugs supplied by Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck.

The execution is expected to go ahead, despite both the Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling that the execution of those with ‘mental retardation’ (or intellectual disability) violates the ban on ‘cruel and unusual punishment’, and Lundbeck’s recent announcement of plans to restrict the use of the Nembutal it produces in US executions.

Reprieve spokesperson Donald Campbell said: “This appalling case shows just how urgent the need is for Lundbeck to restrict the flow of their drugs to US death chambers. Lundbeck’s announcement of plans to act is encouraging but until they do so, more of their lethal drugs will find their way into US death rows and the veins of their prisoners.”

1. For further information please contact Donald Campbell in Reprieve’s press office on +44 (0)20 7427 1082 / (0)7791 755 4152.

2. Pentobarbital – also known as Nembutal – produced by Lundbeck is being used in executions by an increasing number of US states which have switched to the drug following domestic shortages of the until-recently widely used anaesthetic sodium thiopental. Legal action charity Reprieve has suggested a range of possible courses of action Lundbeck could take to put a stop to the use of its drugs in executions.

3. So far, Lundbeck’s drugs have been used in 15 executions across seven US states, as follows:

Alabama: Jason Williams, Eddie Powell
Mississippi: Benny Stevens, Rodney Gray
Oklahoma: John David Duty, Billy Don Alverson, Jeffrey Matthews
Ohio: Johnnie Baston, Clarence Carter, Daniel Bedford
South Carolina: Jeffrey Motts
Texas: Cary Kerr, Gayland Bradford, Lee Andrew Taylor
Arizona: Donald Beaty

4. Lundbeck told Reprieve on Monday 6 June that they were reconsidering their position, but have yet to take concrete steps to restrict supply. Further information can be found here: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/2011_06_06_Lundbeck_meeting_Wiinberg

5. A petition from leading doctors to Lundbeck can be viewed here: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/lundberg-stop-supplying-drugs-for-us-death-rows.html

Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay. Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves. Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives.

Reprieve
PO Box 52742
London EC4P 4WS
Tel: 020 7353 4640
Fax: 020 7353 4641

Source: Reprieve, June 21, 2011
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