Kentucky and Tennessee turned over their supplies of a sedative used in executions to federal authorities on Friday, weeks after Georgias supply was seized due to questions of how it had been imported.
The production of sodium thiopental, a sedative commonly used in lethal injections, was halted in January after a shortage lasting months caused many states scurrying to find an alternative. The drug was manufactured by Hospira, Inc. and was used by 34 of the 35 states that perform lethal injections.
Kentuckys sodium thiopental was turned over to the D.E.A. (Drug Enforcement Agency) for its use as evidence in a case in another jurisdiction, according to Jennifer Brislin, director of communications for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.
We are fully cooperating with the D.E.A., Brislin said.
Brislin said Kentuckys current supply of the drug, enough for three executions, came from CorrectHealth, a private Georgia correctional health company. The drugs packaging indicated it had been manufactured by an Austrian company.
In March, the D.E.A. seized Georgias supply of sodium thiopental after records submitted by a defense attorney for a man on death row showed that the state had purchased it from a London supplier operating out of a driving school. A Kentucky defense attorney has also questioned the legality of the states supply.
