ATLANTA, March 16 (UPI) -- Georgia's supply of a key execution drug has been seized by the U.S. government due to questions about how it was imported, a corrections spokesperson said.
Kristen Stancil told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the Drug Enforcement Administration removed the drug from a state facility in Jackson Tuesday.
The seizure comes more than two weeks after the lawyer for a death row inmate sent a letter to the U.S. attorney general, accusing Georgia of circumventing federal law to secure a scarce drug for executions.
The letter said the Georgia corrections department was not registered with the federal government to import drugs and failed to submit a declaration to the DEA when it imported the sedative thiopental last year.
The drug has been in short supply nationwide because companies have refused to provide it for executions.
Georgia and many other states use a three-drug cocktail for executions. The first drug is a sedative, the second paralyzes the inmate and the third stops the heart.
