Nebraska Prison officials respond to lawmakers' request for information on lethal injection drug

The state Department of Correctional Services has responded to a letter from 3 state senators asking for details about the department's recent purchase from an Indian company of one of the drugs used in Nebraska's lethal-injection protocol.

The department recently bought such a large quantity of a drug used to kill death-row inmates that it now has enough to carry out 166 executions -- even though it has just 12 men on death row.

The state paid $2,056 to Kayem Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd. for 500 grams of sodium thiopental, the minimum purchase required by the company, according to corrections officials.

Sens. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln and Brenda Council and Jeremy Nordquist of Omaha sent the letter Feb. 3 to Bob Houston, director of the department.

The letter asked for, among other things, documentation regarding how the drug was imported into the United States, how the drug was tested, the results of those tests, the chain of custody for the drug while en route to Nebraska and whether the department solicited bids for the drug.

Conrad said the three lawmakers wanted to make sure the Legislature maintains a role in ensuring "constitutional and statutory rules and regulations are adhered to.

"This is really ensuring that the Legislature takes an appropriate oversight role on these issues as we move forward ... rather than washing our hands and saying 'They'll just work it out,'" Conrad said. "We need to have clear, concrete facts and specifics on these issues."

According to the documents, the department paid Phil Patterson Inc., an import company based in Omaha, to facilitate shipment of the drug from India.

Kayem issued a certificate of origin for the drug and the shipment was under the supervision of customs officials in India and the United States, said Megan Cooley, who oversaw the importation for Phil Patterson Inc.

Once the shipment arrived in the United States, it was tested by Medtox Laboratories in St. Paul, Minn., to verify that it was sodium thiopental, according to the documents.

There has been a shortage of the drug, which is said to cause unconsciousness in less than a minute, since last year. And the only U.S. manufacturer of the drug, Hospira Inc., said it is ending production because of death-penalty opposition overseas.

Mark Caverly of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said states can give or sell doses of the drug to other states for use in executions, as long as they are both registered with the DEA and the drug was properly imported.

A doctor, hospital, clinic or, in this case, the corrections department, can transfer up to 5 percent of the total controlled substances it buys in a year to another DEA-registered entity.

But Nebraska prison officials are not looking at doing so, even though the expiration date for the batch Nebraska got is August 2012. They have declined to say why.

The Nebraska lethal injection protocol uses a 3-gram dose of sodium thiopental followed by a consciousness check one minute later. If the inmate is not unconscious, another 3 grams are given.

Nebraska's protocol then calls for 2 more drugs to be given: pancuronium bromide, a paralyzing agent, and then potassium chloride to stop the heart.

Sodium thiopental is a barbiturate that has been used to anesthetize patients for surgery and induce medical comas. It also has been used to help terminally ill people commit suicide.

A federal lawsuit has been filed in Arizona challenging the use of the drugs from overseas suppliers, saying they may be substandard and could lead to problems during executions.

The Nebraska Legislature approved lethal injection as the state's method of execution in May 2009. The state has not executed an inmate since Robert Williams died in the electric chair in 1997.

Critics of lethal injection have argued that corrections workers who don't regularly administer intravenous drugs may have trouble finding a vein. Supporters say training requirements spelled out in the protocol -- including that members of the IV teams be trained as emergency medical technicians -- alleviate that concern.

Shortly after Nebraska got its sodium thiopental, state officials asked the Nebraska Supreme Court to set an execution date for Carey Dean Moore, who has been on death row since 1980.

Moore, 53, was sentenced to death for killing Omaha cab drivers Maynard D. Helgeland and Reuel Eugene Van Ness during botched robberies in 1979.

Source: Journal Star, February 18, 2011

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