The State of Texas Death Drug Dealer
Two weeks ago Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip’s execution was delayed with just hours to spare so an Oklahoma court could consider his appeal. This week the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Glossip’s appeal and his execution is now scheduled for today. Today’s execution date is the third one this year for Glossip. His January execution date was delayed when the United State’s Supreme Court decided to hear Glossip’s case and then later upheld Oklahoma’s execution protocol.
Oklahoma uses a three drug cocktail for is executions–midazolam, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. In recent years, state’s where the death penalty is still handed down have struggled to find pharmaceutical companies that will supply them with drugs for executions. Texas seems not to have had this difficulty and many are questioning whether Texas is compounding its own lethal injection drug. In Glossip’s case heard before the Supreme Court, lawyers argued that the use of midazolam was cruel and unusual. The Court ruled that Oklahoma has made an effort to procure alternatives to the three drug cocktail and found none. Lawyers for Glossip’s current appeal say that’s not correct and that the state did not make an effort to look for alternatives. So this is where Texas comes into play. Those same lawyers say that Oklahoma should just ask Texas for some of its pentobarbital as an alternative. A bizarre argument for the attorneys trying to spare Glossip’s life.
In a document filed in Glossip’s case, the attorney claims that his client should not have to use an alternative to pentobarbital. When midazolam is used for execution, its used in the form of a drug cocktail with at least one other or two other drugs. Pentobarbital can be used in a combination with other drugs or by itself for executions. The attorney argues that Texas is compounding pentobarbital itself and selling the drug to other states. Now, Glossip’s attorney is alleging that Oklahoma could be getting one of its lethal injection drugs for Glossip’s execution from Texas. According to Glossip’s attorney, receipts show that Texas sold the lethal injection drug to Virginia in August. Last week, Texas confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it did in fact send the drug to Virginia, but that it was in repayment for Virginia having given Texas drugs in 2013. Texas law prohibits the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from disclosing who supplies its lethal injection drugs.
