New Lawsuit Filed Against Mississippi Lethal Injection Drugs
2015/04/20 – A new lawsuit has been filed against the Mississippi Department of Corrections challenging the use of compounded drugs in executions.
A new federal lawsuit has been filed against the Mississippi Department of Corrections challenging the use of compounded drugs in executions.
The lawsuit, filed late last week by the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center in New Orleans, says Mississippi is one of the last remaining states to use compounded pentobarbital before injecting a death row inmate with a paralytic agent and potassium chloride.
“If the compounded pentobarbital does not work to properly anesthetize the prisoner, he will be consciously suffocated to death by the second drug or suffer the burning injection and cardiac arrest produced by the third drug,” said attorney Jim Craig, co-director of the MacArthur Justice Center.
Craig said MDOC currently doesn’t have compounded pentobarbital in a sterile injectable form. He said the raw ingredients of unknown purity and potency is stored at the state Penitentiary at Parchman.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Mississippi death row inmates Richard Jordan and Ricky Chase. Jordan could be next in line for execution if the U.S. Supreme Court turns down his appeal. His case is scheduled for conference Friday before the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We have Richard Gerald Jordan pending in the United States Supreme Court right now. If the court denies cert, we will request an execution date as required by law,” Mississippi Attorney General spokeswomen Jan Schaefer said Monday.
The lawsuit, which seeks an injunction to prevent the state’s use of the compounded drugs, asks that Mississippi be prohibited from using the last two drugs in the three-drug lethal injection.
The MacArthur Justice Center has been in a year-long legal battle with MDOC to try to gain the identity of the supplier of lethal injection drugs to the state.
Source: The Clarion Ledger
