Just when it looked as if Oklahoma might need to slow down on executions, the state secured 20 additional lethal doses of the chemical needed to kill death row inmates. Close call!
It had been touch and go for a while. In the midst of a nationwide shortage of the anesthetic, Oklahoma corrections officials only had a single dose available. Death row inmate Michael Hooper, whose execution is just a month away, had even filed a lawsuit, contending the execution could be tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment in case that dose didn’t do the trick.
Supply and demand has really put a crunch on the whole execution game. Texas, for instance, has had lots of pentobarbital but little of another drug needed for their three-drug execution cocktail. The Lone Star State has now decided to also become the Lone Anesthetic state, announcing that from now on it only will use pentobarbital for its state-sanctioned killing. Waste not, want not, don’cha know.
