Feds Seize TN Execution Drug
Tennessee has turned over a key lethal injection drug to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency after records show the state purchased the drugs overseas.
Dorinda Carter, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Correction, told The Associated Press on Friday that the department had turned over its supply of sodium thiopental at the DEA’s request. Kentucky officials also said Friday they turned over their supply to be used as evidence in a case in another jurisdiction.
Several states scrambled to find a new supplier of sodium thiopental, a fast-acting sedative in a three-drug cocktail used when putting inmates to death, since its primary manufacturer in the United States stopped making the drug.
According to records obtained by the AP, Tennessee officials purchased the drug from an overseas supplier last year.
