Missouri Fought For Years To Hide Where It Got Its Execution Drugs.
February 20, 2018 10:59 AM Subscribe
To hide the identity of the new pharmacy, the state has taken extraordinary steps. It uses a code name for the pharmacy in its official documents. Only a handful of state employees know the real name. The state fought at least six lawsuits to stop death row inmates and the press from knowing the pharmacy’s identity. Even the way Missouri buys and collects the drugs is cloak-and-dagger: The state sends a high-ranking corrections officer to a clandestine meeting with a company representative, exchanging an envelope full of cash for vials of pentobarbital. Since 2014, Missouri has spent more than $135,000 in such drug deals. - The secretive company behind Missouri’s lethal injections [SLBuzzfeed]
When officials have to act like they're buying a brick of pure cocaine from someone about as dodgy as "Bob from 9th street", maybe, maybe they should rethink their options.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:19 AM on February 20, 2018 [30 favorites]
posted by lmfsilva at 11:19 AM on February 20, 2018 [30 favorites]
Is there a reason that we aren't naming the pharmacy, Foundation Care, here?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:23 AM on February 20, 2018 [26 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:23 AM on February 20, 2018 [26 favorites]
It seems all over the place because the circumstances surrounding the move to compounding pharmacies as the source for lethal injection drugs are themselves quite ridiculous sounding.
I mean seriously, felony drug sales, secret purchases in cash, etc?
posted by wierdo at 11:23 AM on February 20, 2018
I mean seriously, felony drug sales, secret purchases in cash, etc?
posted by wierdo at 11:23 AM on February 20, 2018
I see that its in the tags but really the name Foundation Care should be everywhere.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:24 AM on February 20, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:24 AM on February 20, 2018 [10 favorites]
Capital punishment is a moral abomination. All that treasure, all those lives wasted just to preserve the right of the state to kill.
posted by Existential Dread at 11:31 AM on February 20, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by Existential Dread at 11:31 AM on February 20, 2018 [9 favorites]
'They could have done a better job with an ax':
posted by thelonius at 11:35 AM on February 20, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 11:35 AM on February 20, 2018 [3 favorites]
In a nation as wild over guns as the United States is, I'm continually surprised that nobody does firing squads.
I never trust any organization with "Heritage" in its name, and the same goes for "Foundation" (unless it's an actual foundation).
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:07 PM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]
I never trust any organization with "Heritage" in its name, and the same goes for "Foundation" (unless it's an actual foundation).
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:07 PM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]
I never trust any organization with "Heritage" in its name, and the same goes for "Foundation"
Well, especially since that incident with The Mule and how that all went awry.
posted by hippybear at 12:09 PM on February 20, 2018 [26 favorites]
Well, especially since that incident with The Mule and how that all went awry.
posted by hippybear at 12:09 PM on February 20, 2018 [26 favorites]
You mean like Foundation Care?
posted by Ickster at 12:09 PM on February 20, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Ickster at 12:09 PM on February 20, 2018 [4 favorites]
In a nation as wild over guns as the United States is, I'm continually surprised that nobody does firing squads.
firing squad is still an approved method in Utah.
posted by murphy slaw at 12:19 PM on February 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
firing squad is still an approved method in Utah.
posted by murphy slaw at 12:19 PM on February 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
In a nation as wild over guns as the United States is, I'm continually surprised that nobody does firing squads.
I'm not sure if it's still the case, but at least up to the mid 00s in Utah the condemned could choose lethal injection or a firing squad. It was at some point in the 90s Arkansas stopped giving them the choice between an electric chair and the injection.
I always thought that choice in the method of execution introduced at least a small measure of humanity and compassion into the process. Doesn't make it right, but it is slightly less sick than the usual procedure to my mind.
posted by wierdo at 12:20 PM on February 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm not sure if it's still the case, but at least up to the mid 00s in Utah the condemned could choose lethal injection or a firing squad. It was at some point in the 90s Arkansas stopped giving them the choice between an electric chair and the injection.
I always thought that choice in the method of execution introduced at least a small measure of humanity and compassion into the process. Doesn't make it right, but it is slightly less sick than the usual procedure to my mind.
posted by wierdo at 12:20 PM on February 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
Capital punishment is an abomination, but this drug stuff is bizarre. Helium or nitrogen would almost certainly be less painful, faster etc. And far easier to procure.
The whole thing is so bizarre, coming from a country where we stopped this kind of shit decades ago.
posted by smoke at 12:26 PM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]
The whole thing is so bizarre, coming from a country where we stopped this kind of shit decades ago.
posted by smoke at 12:26 PM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]
Without trying to argue one side or the other of the capitol punishment debate, I don't understand how we have drugs we use regularly to put our pets "to sleep" that aren't the same ones we can use on prisoners.
posted by hippybear at 12:28 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 12:28 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
part of the ridiculousness of current lethal injection protocols is that they are designed so that no one involved in the process feels like they are "the executioner".
the process is designed to blur the line between life and death so that the participants can say to themselves "well, it wasn't my step of the process that killed him".
there are many simpler ways to kill a human being but they don't diffuse responsibility in the same way.
posted by murphy slaw at 12:34 PM on February 20, 2018 [33 favorites]
the process is designed to blur the line between life and death so that the participants can say to themselves "well, it wasn't my step of the process that killed him".
there are many simpler ways to kill a human being but they don't diffuse responsibility in the same way.
posted by murphy slaw at 12:34 PM on February 20, 2018 [33 favorites]
> smoke:
"Helium or nitrogen would almost certainly be less painful, faster etc. And far easier to procure."
Yes, but it wouldn't play to people's need for revenge.
posted by signal at 12:37 PM on February 20, 2018 [11 favorites]
"Helium or nitrogen would almost certainly be less painful, faster etc. And far easier to procure."
Yes, but it wouldn't play to people's need for revenge.
posted by signal at 12:37 PM on February 20, 2018 [11 favorites]
Without trying to argue one side or the other of the capitol punishment debate, I don't understand how we have drugs we use regularly to put our pets "to sleep" that aren't the same ones we can use on prisoners.
They are the same drugs, or at least one of the execution drugs is part of a euthanasia drug. The companies that make pentobarbital don't allow it to be sold for killing humans.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:44 PM on February 20, 2018 [19 favorites]
They are the same drugs, or at least one of the execution drugs is part of a euthanasia drug. The companies that make pentobarbital don't allow it to be sold for killing humans.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:44 PM on February 20, 2018 [19 favorites]
Mod note: Couple deleted; I'm sure it's meant in a fine spirit but we don't need to get into dreaming up new grisly execution methods.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:56 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:56 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
There is some research that by firing squad is one of the least painful and more reliable ways to go. Heck, you even get volunteers. But I don't think those are the metrics they're optimizing.
China has even eschewed the firing squad for a modern cost-efficient alternative, the execution van, which also allows organs to be harvested for sale on the black market.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:59 PM on February 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
China has even eschewed the firing squad for a modern cost-efficient alternative, the execution van, which also allows organs to be harvested for sale on the black market.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:59 PM on February 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
I don't understand how we have drugs we use regularly to put our pets "to sleep" that aren't the same ones we can use on prisoners.
It's because there's a (bizarre, to my mind) requirement that the drugs we use for executions be human pharmaceutical grade. It's not hard to get laboratory-grade or veterinary-grade chemicals that will kill someone stone dead, but states aren't allowed to use them. They have to get the real stuff that a doctor would prescribe, only a doctor isn't prescribing them (they're not allowed to participate in executions, only verify that the condemned is, in fact, dead), so it's also weirdly close to being illegal.
If they were buying research-chemical phenobarb, they could just call up any one of a number of chemical supply houses, who would probably have zero problem supplying a generic "State of XYZ" account without asking a ton of questions about what it's being used for.
Sigma-Aldrich will sell it to you, if you have an account, 500 grams for $445. I don't know the exact lethal dose for a human, but I suspect that would punch a whole lot of tickets to hell, for a lot less than they're currently paying their shady pharmacy. But apparently they can't go that route.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:04 PM on February 20, 2018 [7 favorites]
It's because there's a (bizarre, to my mind) requirement that the drugs we use for executions be human pharmaceutical grade. It's not hard to get laboratory-grade or veterinary-grade chemicals that will kill someone stone dead, but states aren't allowed to use them. They have to get the real stuff that a doctor would prescribe, only a doctor isn't prescribing them (they're not allowed to participate in executions, only verify that the condemned is, in fact, dead), so it's also weirdly close to being illegal.
If they were buying research-chemical phenobarb, they could just call up any one of a number of chemical supply houses, who would probably have zero problem supplying a generic "State of XYZ" account without asking a ton of questions about what it's being used for.
Sigma-Aldrich will sell it to you, if you have an account, 500 grams for $445. I don't know the exact lethal dose for a human, but I suspect that would punch a whole lot of tickets to hell, for a lot less than they're currently paying their shady pharmacy. But apparently they can't go that route.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:04 PM on February 20, 2018 [7 favorites]
over 7000 bucks for 10 grams is awfully steep, isn't it?
posted by pyramid termite at 1:17 PM on February 20, 2018
posted by pyramid termite at 1:17 PM on February 20, 2018
The current Hardcore History deals with the history of state sponsored murder. It echoes many of the assorted discussion topics echoed here. Worth a (grim) listen.
posted by Keith Talent at 1:40 PM on February 20, 2018
posted by Keith Talent at 1:40 PM on February 20, 2018
I argue, again, that we need radical transparency. It simply should not be legal for the government to keep secrets of that nature, or really most natures beyond the identities of spies (but not their numbers), and military plans until they're executed.
Leaving aside the morality of the issue, there's a potential for corruption and graft inherent in such secret dealings. Who's brother in law owns Foundation Care? Under what circumstances was the contract negotiated? Did the state actually get the best possible deal and how can we know for sure? Etc.
The Underpants Monster In a nation as wild over guns as the United States is, I'm continually surprised that nobody does firing squads.
I suspect that in part its motivated by the belief (possibly even true) that more grisly execution methods would encourage the move to abolition. A person dying of lethal injection is undergoing a sort of medical procedure in a sterile room with everyone looking professional and hygienic, and afterward the corpse looks presentable and isn't bleeding or otherwise gross.
A firing squad requires a firing range, a number of people with guns, and results in a bleeding corpse riddled with holes. For people trying to keep the death penalty legal that's bad optics.
Also the image of a condemned person being shot by a firing squad has long been used by Hollywood as an element of their depiction of poverty stricken or dictatorial nations, that's also bad optics for people who want the government to keep killing prisoners.
posted by sotonohito at 2:16 PM on February 20, 2018 [9 favorites]
Leaving aside the morality of the issue, there's a potential for corruption and graft inherent in such secret dealings. Who's brother in law owns Foundation Care? Under what circumstances was the contract negotiated? Did the state actually get the best possible deal and how can we know for sure? Etc.
The Underpants Monster In a nation as wild over guns as the United States is, I'm continually surprised that nobody does firing squads.
I suspect that in part its motivated by the belief (possibly even true) that more grisly execution methods would encourage the move to abolition. A person dying of lethal injection is undergoing a sort of medical procedure in a sterile room with everyone looking professional and hygienic, and afterward the corpse looks presentable and isn't bleeding or otherwise gross.
A firing squad requires a firing range, a number of people with guns, and results in a bleeding corpse riddled with holes. For people trying to keep the death penalty legal that's bad optics.
Also the image of a condemned person being shot by a firing squad has long been used by Hollywood as an element of their depiction of poverty stricken or dictatorial nations, that's also bad optics for people who want the government to keep killing prisoners.
posted by sotonohito at 2:16 PM on February 20, 2018 [9 favorites]
Counterintuitively, in 2016 California voted against ending the death penalty and for speeding it up.
posted by ericales at 2:18 PM on February 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by ericales at 2:18 PM on February 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
They are the same drugs, or at least one of the execution drugs is part of a euthanasia drug. The companies that make pentobarbital don't allow it to be sold for killing humans.
The conventional execution procedure does include a barbiturate overdose, which is standard for euthanasia, but follows it with a paralytic dose of a muscle relaxant and then potassium chloride to stop the heart. As far as I know the real purpose of this added complexity is to arrive at a medically certifiable death within a predictable window of time, and to avoid alarming spectators too much. It almost certainly makes the process less humane because it presents a bunch of opportunities for things to go terrifyingly or painfully wrong.
posted by atoxyl at 2:44 PM on February 20, 2018 [3 favorites]
The conventional execution procedure does include a barbiturate overdose, which is standard for euthanasia, but follows it with a paralytic dose of a muscle relaxant and then potassium chloride to stop the heart. As far as I know the real purpose of this added complexity is to arrive at a medically certifiable death within a predictable window of time, and to avoid alarming spectators too much. It almost certainly makes the process less humane because it presents a bunch of opportunities for things to go terrifyingly or painfully wrong.
posted by atoxyl at 2:44 PM on February 20, 2018 [3 favorites]
ODing on heroin would be easy, cheap, and simple. But the felon might enjoy it for the few minutes before they died, and we certainly can't have that!
Also, it might not occur in a verifiable 5-minute window; people might take over an hour to die. Again, can't be having that! We need pushbutton deaths, not guaranteed "this will kill you painlessly before morning" arrangements.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 3:15 PM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]
Also, it might not occur in a verifiable 5-minute window; people might take over an hour to die. Again, can't be having that! We need pushbutton deaths, not guaranteed "this will kill you painlessly before morning" arrangements.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 3:15 PM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]
Death penalties are absolutely horrifying and I am ashamed to be US Citizen because of it.
I was a high school kid in Dallas in the 1980’s raising hell about the monstrousness of the death penalty. At this point I’m just like, damn this country has a massively fucked up rot forming a large parcel of our national core values.
posted by Annika Cicada at 3:46 PM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]
I was a high school kid in Dallas in the 1980’s raising hell about the monstrousness of the death penalty. At this point I’m just like, damn this country has a massively fucked up rot forming a large parcel of our national core values.
posted by Annika Cicada at 3:46 PM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]
I really hate that I've known so many cruel-minded assholes in my life (including my father) that I can't help but hear all the shitty comments in the back of my mind that they'd make about this:
"Hell, just shoot the bastards! I'd be happy to get volunteer -- get some target practice!"
"Who cares if some criminal suffers as they die? They deserve to suffer!"
Well, it's their constitutional right, it forbids cruel and unusual punishment.
"I don't give a damn about their constitutional rights!"
Well in that case, let me have a talk with you about the 2nd amendment...
posted by Saxon Kane at 4:58 PM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]
"Hell, just shoot the bastards! I'd be happy to get volunteer -- get some target practice!"
"Who cares if some criminal suffers as they die? They deserve to suffer!"
Well, it's their constitutional right, it forbids cruel and unusual punishment.
"I don't give a damn about their constitutional rights!"
Well in that case, let me have a talk with you about the 2nd amendment...
posted by Saxon Kane at 4:58 PM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]
Metafilter: I'm sure it's meant in a fine spirit but we don't need to get into dreaming up new grisly execution methods.
posted by el io at 5:24 PM on February 20, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by el io at 5:24 PM on February 20, 2018 [4 favorites]
Meanwhile, in a more civilised country - Gambia suspends death penalty on path towards abolition.
posted by Devonian at 5:50 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Devonian at 5:50 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
ODing on heroin would be easy, cheap, and simple. But the felon might enjoy it for the few minutes before they died, and we certainly can't have that!
One of the substitute cocktails tried recently was the opioid hydromorphone (a.k.a. Dilaudid) with the sedative midazolam. It actually went quite poorly, though I think this may have to do with (in my opinion as uh an amateur pharmacist) midazolam being a poor choice and insufficient doses being used in general. And per above I have a feeling that what's considered a "clean" execution has more to do with whether it avoids upsetting onlookers than whether the condemned is likely to have suffered.
posted by atoxyl at 5:52 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
One of the substitute cocktails tried recently was the opioid hydromorphone (a.k.a. Dilaudid) with the sedative midazolam. It actually went quite poorly, though I think this may have to do with (in my opinion as uh an amateur pharmacist) midazolam being a poor choice and insufficient doses being used in general. And per above I have a feeling that what's considered a "clean" execution has more to do with whether it avoids upsetting onlookers than whether the condemned is likely to have suffered.
posted by atoxyl at 5:52 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
Which is why the non use of oxygen displacement gases is so weird. It's such an easy way to go people die of it by accident all the time and consequentially in my profession I have to undergo training to avoid killing myself by accident in that manner.
posted by Mitheral at 7:14 PM on February 20, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by Mitheral at 7:14 PM on February 20, 2018 [5 favorites]
This was the one thing that threw me out of suspended disbelief in Gone Girl. Margo asks 'does Missouri have the death penalty?' This was set in Cape Girardeau which is an hour and a half from Potosi, ffs.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 8:32 PM on February 20, 2018
posted by fluttering hellfire at 8:32 PM on February 20, 2018
Missouri hasn’t carried out an execution in more than a year now, because it executed all of the eligible prisoners.
Damn. I live in Texas (very newly not quite as 'kill 'em all' as it has been!) and I think that's cold.
posted by librarylis at 8:50 PM on February 20, 2018
Damn. I live in Texas (very newly not quite as 'kill 'em all' as it has been!) and I think that's cold.
posted by librarylis at 8:50 PM on February 20, 2018
Which is why the non use of oxygen displacement gases is so weird.
I suspect it's because there'd likely be a lot of involuntary muscle movements, gasping, etc., even if the condemned was unconscious.
As others have pointed out, the modern death penalty as implemented in the US is all about a "clean" killing, for the benefit of the onlookers. There's a very conscious distancing from previous generations' executions-as-spectacle, as though we've moved beyond that sort of petty stuff into calm, cool, professional, medicalized killing.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:33 PM on February 20, 2018 [3 favorites]
I suspect it's because there'd likely be a lot of involuntary muscle movements, gasping, etc., even if the condemned was unconscious.
As others have pointed out, the modern death penalty as implemented in the US is all about a "clean" killing, for the benefit of the onlookers. There's a very conscious distancing from previous generations' executions-as-spectacle, as though we've moved beyond that sort of petty stuff into calm, cool, professional, medicalized killing.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:33 PM on February 20, 2018 [3 favorites]
So then, the pharmaceutical firm providing Missouri's lethal injection is Foundation Care?
Perhaps someone would be interested in contacting them...
posted by evilDoug at 11:06 PM on February 20, 2018 [4 favorites]
Perhaps someone would be interested in contacting them...
posted by evilDoug at 11:06 PM on February 20, 2018 [4 favorites]
From the article:
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:27 AM on February 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of strict state laws that prohibit disclosing or publishing the identity of the supplier.How is this prior restraint even a tiny bit legal in the US?
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:27 AM on February 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
I think it would be the HEIGHT of comedy for someone facing the death penalty by being overdosed on some opiate or another; secreting some Narcan on their body somehow (perhaps Dr Yueh's tooth?), and then as the opiate is pushed into their IV and they feel themselves going out, releasing the gas and then motion the warden over. To ask for some ice cream, preferably Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey, because they feel they were shorted during their last meal (maybe one of the guards decided they'd like some ice cream for themselves and no time like the present to itch that scratch) and they'd like their full portion. Credits roll.
Gods, I slay me.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 2:29 PM on February 21, 2018
Gods, I slay me.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 2:29 PM on February 21, 2018
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posted by hippybear at 11:05 AM on February 20, 2018 [8 favorites]