Attorney: Louisiana DOC does not have execution drug

Christopher Sepulvado is scheduled to be executed Feb. 5 for 1992 death of his stepson.

The Louisiana Department of Corrections does not have the drug needed to execute child killer Christopher Sepulvado on Feb. 5. But it is trying to obtain some, defense attorney Gary Clements said today

The problem with that is it violates the protocol that states the drug, pentobarbital, is supposed to be in DOC's possession 30 days before a scheduled education. "So they failed on that," Clements said.

Will this mean another appeal on Sepulvado's behalf? Clements doesn't know.

Late today, he was still reading through documents provided by the law firm of Shows, Cali & Walsh LLP, which is representing the corrections department, in response to a deadline imposed by a federal magistrate judge. The judge ruled Sepulvado and another death row inmate, Jessie Hoffman, should have the information they sought on the execution protocol.

Clements expects 1,500 more pages Saturday from the attorneys.

"I don't know yet," Clements said when asked if he anticipates asking for another delay in Sepulvado's execution. "I need to see everything. ... It's just the volume is so big."

The winter storm that hit Louisiana Thursday forced the closure of many state offices and court systems. As a result, the documents were not filed into the court record.

James Hilburn, of the Shows, Cali & Walsh law firm, confirmed to The Times that the documents were emailed to Clements. However, he declined to share the information with the newspaper, citing "attorney-client privilege."

Defense attorneys have been trying for months to obtain the state's specific plans to put Sepulvado to death. Corrections officials confirmed last year it had moved from a 3-drug protocol (last used to execute Gerald Bordelon in 2010) to a single 5-gram dose of pentobarbital in the execution procedure.

But the attorneys raised even more alarm earlier this month when it learned from the Louisiana Pharmacy Board that Louisiana State Penitentiary no longer has any expired pentobarbital in its possession. The state's execution protocol does not list any back-up drugs or drug plans for conducting executions with any other drug but pentobarbital, which no longer can be obtained from the manufacturer.

As of Jan. 16, the state did not have any pentobarbital in stock. Clements also has raised the concern that the prison would turn to a compounding pharmacy to create a facsimile.

Sepulvado, of Mansfield, is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the March 8, 1992 death of his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Allen Mercer. A DeSoto Parish jury a year later convicted Sepulvado after hearing details of how he beat the child in the head with a screwdriver and put him in a bathtub of scalding water. The jury decided Sepulvado should die for the crime.

Source: Shreveport Times, Jan. 24, 2014

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