Warren, Booker Renew Call for Strong Oversight of Lethal Injections
“The FDA and DEA have the regulatory authority to prevent the procurement of dangerous, low-quality drugs from secretive suppliers with a history of regulatory infractions.”
Boston, MA – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) wrote to the Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), calling for stricter federal oversight of lethal injection drugs. This letter follows a May 2024 congressional request for information about the FDA’s and DEA’s plans to ensure a secure supply chain for lethal injection drugs.
The supply chains for lethal injection drugs are shrouded in secrecy. Poor-quality drugs are often obtained without regulatory oversight then mixed into untested cocktails, in a rushed process leading to many botched executions, which Black people on death row have faced at an approximately 220% higher rate than their White counterparts.
A new investigation released last month by the National Public Radio underscores the need for the DEA and FDA to promptly increase their oversight of dangerous drugs used in lethal injections. The investigation showed how Texas resorted to sourcing execution drugs from a local pharmacy after major pharmaceutical companies refused to sell execution drugs to the state. The pharmacy, Rite-Away, has a history of citations for safety and cleanliness violations, including a failure to maintain sterile conditions and improper record-keeping, among other infractions. Employees delivered the drug ingredients in unmarked vehicles to avoid attracting attention.
The investigation also reveals how the pharmacy’s process of creating its compounded drugs is riddled with errors. The Texas pharmacy was previously sued by the federal government for selling medications without valid prescriptions, falsifying records, and providing high doses of fentanyl without a legitimate medical purpose – displaying a pattern of wrongdoing by the pharmacy that Texas selected as its lethal injection supplier.
Utah is another disturbing example, and could become the first state in the country to use ketamine, a dangerous anesthetic, in an execution by experimentally combining it with fentanyl and potassium chloride. The individual slated for execution has argued that this combination could cause severe pain, hallucinations, and “mental anguish.” Utah has revealed little about how the state is procuring fentanyl and ketamine, or about safeguards for preventing those dangerous drugs from leaking from the state’s supply chain and reaching the general public.
The lawmakers are reiterating their request that the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel revoke a 2019 opinion granting the FDA jurisdiction over lethal injection drugs, and calling for information about the FDA’s and DEA’s plans to increase enforcement of their regulations in the context of lethal injection drugs.
Senator Warren has fought for strong oversight over federal executions:
- In May 2024, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Booker (D-N.J.) led several of their colleagues in urging federal agencies to take immediate action to regulate drugs used in lethal injections.
- In December 2020, Senators Warren (D-Mass.), Booker (D-N.J.), Durbin (D-Ill.), Van Hollen (D-Md.), Markey (D-Mass.), Sanders (I-Vt.), Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Brown (D-Ohio.), sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), seeking an investigation of the frenzied and unprecedented "spree of federal executions during [President Trump's] lame-duck period."
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