'Illegal drug' furore hits death row

Published on Thursday 31 March 2011 15:51

Prison officials in Texas have been illegally buying execution drugs using details of a hospital that has been closed since 1983, it has been claimed.

Lawyers for two death-row inmates say the state's criminal justice department has been breaking the law for more than 25 years by obtaining lethal injection drugs under false pretences.

They are calling on the US attorney general to investigate the claims with a view to revoking Texas's licence for the drug and the seizure of any stockpiles.

Any such move could affect the state's busy execution schedule - seven are planned in the coming months. It would also raise further questions over the use of lethal injection drugs following a series of recent controversies.

Earlier this month, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized the state of Georgia's supply of the execution drug, sodium thiopental, amid concern that the substance, imported from the UK, caused unnecessary pain.

A legal team representing death-row inmates Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal Garcia are now calling on the DEA to impose similar sanctions on Texas.

Following a request under the Public Information Act, they found documents they allege show that officials provided "false information" to obtain the barbiturate pentobarbital - one of the three drugs injected as part of executions in the state.

In a letter to attorney general Eric Holder, legal experts from the University of Texas's School of Law claim the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) unlawfully obtained the controlled substance by using details of a long-closed prison medical centre.

"The Huntsville Unit Hospital has been closed since 1983. Indeed, TDCJ is forbidden from providing medical care to inmates," the lawyers note.

As a result, prison authorities are "unlawfully in possession of and unlawfully dispensing controlled substances" it is claimed.

Officials are also accused of failing to keep the drug in the right conditions or in the hands of authorised medical practitioners.

Instead, they are held at the prison where the lethal injections are carried out and handed to an unidentified executioner "who is also not authorised by law to possess controlled substances", it is alleged.

As such, the potential for abuse is "rampant", the lawyers suggest, adding: "The heighted potential for error in the lethal injection process should not be minimised."

Commenting on the latest controversy surrounding lethal injection drugs, Maya Foa, investigator for legal charity Reprieve, said: "Every day the US capital punishment system looks more ridiculous. If the Texas Department of Criminal Justice can't even manage to obey the law, why on Earth should they be granted the extraordinary power to kill prisoners?" A spokesman for TDCJ said: "We are confident that we are not violating any state or federal law."

Lawyers for Foster hope the legal challenge may delay his execution. He is due to die on Tuesday for the rape and murder of Sudanese immigrants in 2002.