October 26, 2010: It took several minutes for Jeffrey Landrigan to die in Arizona. He was the second person to be executed with sodium thiopental sold by fly-by-night British drug company Dream Pharma. It appeared that the anaesthetic may not have worked. It took over 10 minutes for him to be pronounced dead.
Reprieve launched a judicial review after Vince Cable consistently refused to consider an export ban on sodium thiopental. On 29 November 2010, following pressure from Reprieve, the business secretary imposed an immediate ban on the export of sodium thiopental to the US for use in executions.
Jeffrey Landrigan was convicted of murder in 1989 and spent twenty one years on death row. Born Billy Hill he was disowned by his mother at birth while his father was in prison. Billy was adopted at the age of six months into the Landrigan family and renamed Jeffrey Landrigan but life wasn't hugely smoother; his childhood was troubled and his behaviour, his lawyers later argued, had been affected by his mother's alcohol abuse during pregnancy.
Jeffrey's final appeal rested on the state's refusal to declare how it had got hold of the sodium thiopental needed to execute him. Two courts consented to block his execution until the state had provided information on where the drugs came from in order to confirm whether Jeffrey's rights would be violated. The unknown risks of using un-approved drugs - for example the possibility of damage during transportation - cast doubt over whether their use would consitute cruel and unusual punishment, barred under the eighth amendment.
In a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court both previous decisions were overuled. In a statement the Supreme Court, concluded in a one-page order that sentiment should not equate to the fact it was "sure or likely to cause serious illness or needless suffering." District Judge Silver, who had ordered that the state provide the information wrote that her court "was left to speculate" that the drug was harmful.
Click here to return to World Day Against the Death Penalty: top five botched executions this year.
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Zero DB