Judge blocks sale of execution drug to Missouri
A federal judge in Oklahoma has issued a temporary restraining order to stop a compounding pharmacy in the state from selling an execution drug to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
U.S. District Judge Terence Kern ruled in the case of Missouri death-row inmate Michael Taylor, the Associated Press, Reuters and NewsOK report. Taylor’s lawyers argue that the drug, compounded pentobarbital, is likely to cause Taylor “severe, unnecessary, lingering and ultimately inhumane pain.”
Kern’s order temporarily bars the Apothecary Shoppe from supplying the drug until a hearing scheduled for next Tuesday. The suit claims the Apothecary Shoppe is not registered as a drug manufacturer with the Food and Drug Administration, and the pharmacy violates federal law when it delivers the drug across state lines.
