Pfizer ban on lethal drug sales complicates executions in 20 states

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Pfizer ban on lethal drug sales complicates executions in 20 states
By Jon Herskovitz and Fiona Ortiz
May 17, 2016

(Reuters) - More than 20 U.S. states that use a combination of drugs to carry out lethal injections will find it harder to conduct executions due to Pfizer's ban on sales of its chemicals, but the move will have little impact on the handful that rely on a single drug.

The pharmaceutical giant's move last week cuts off the last major U.S. source for drugs in the deadly mixes, and it adds to the difficulties of states that were already struggling to procure chemicals for lethal injections.

Among the states affected are Florida and Oklahoma, which have been among the leaders in executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Drug scarcity is also an obstacle for Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wyoming.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/pfizer-ban-lethal-drug-sales-complicates-executions-20-192618634--finance.html?nhp=1

[mwooldri]

1. Good.

Death penalty is the easy way out. Those truly guilty don't pay, as life without parole can be tortuous. The innocent wrongly sentenced can't be resurrected if they're killed for a crime they didn't commit.

The death penalty needs to be killed off.