NEW YORK, March 17 (UPI) -- A shortage of a drug used in executions has affected Texas, which says it will replace the drug, and Georgia, whose supply has been seized by federal agents.
The seizure of sodium pentothal, a powerful barbiturate, at a prison in Jackson, Ga., site of that state's death row, has temporarily precluded any executions in the state, although none are currently scheduled, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Lawyers for an inmate scheduled to die next month in Texas are preparing to challenge the substitution of the new drug.
Both situations are the result of Hospira Inc., the only U.S. maker of sodium thiopental, announcing in January that it had stopped manufacturing the anesthetic.
The seizure in Georgia by the Drug Enforcement Administration followed a complaint lodged in February by an attorney for an inmate on death row that Georgia's Department of Corrections appeared to be importing sodium thiopental from a British distributor, in violation of the Controlled Substances Act. DEA officials declined to comment, while the Georgia Department of Corrections would not comment beyond saying it was cooperating with the investigation.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced that it would replace sodium thiopental in its three-drug process with pentobarbital, another sedative.
A lawyer for Cleve Foster, scheduled to die in Texas April 5, said she would challenge the timing and process for making the change.
"We believe that under state law they are required to have some sort of vetting process," Maurie Levin said.
Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said Texas law allowed corrections officials to change the drugs without legislative approval.
