WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A judge of United States banned on Tuesday to the US authorities import an anesthetic substance used to carry out penalties of death because the food and Drug Administration never approved its use in United States, and ordered that the stocks were confiscated.
A group of death row inmates sued the FDA last year for allowing the importation of sodium thiopental, a sedative substance used as first of three drugs administered in executions.
A year ago, the State authorities in Tennessee and Kentucky returned their supplies of the drug to the FDA in the midst of an investigation into how it was imported. US authorities seized a consignment of thiopental in the State of Georgia.
The FDA intended to demand outside dismissed, arguing that he was acting with discretion to allow that they entered the country shipments and also compliance with the law with regard to the substances used in executions that had been postponed.
United States Richard Leon district judge stood next to prisoners, criticizing the FDA by depart from its usual practice of not allowing that unapproved substances entering United States.
“the FDA seems to be simply wrapped in the flag of the discretion to enforce the law to justify its authority and mask a seemingly callous indifference with regard to the consequences for the health of those who face imminent an implementation. how absolutely disappointing!”, Leon wrote in its letter of 23 pages.
Also ordered the FDA to notify all State correctional departments having thiopental manufactured abroad not allowing them its use and return their stocks to the Agency immediately.
Given that the supply of thiopental is narrowing, according to Leon, some States have opted to manage pentobarbital to sedate the prisoners sentenced to death before injecting them with a cocktail of other substances.
Has also been legal questions about the use of this substance, primarily by concerns that takes too much time sedate a prisoner prior to view the rest of the lethal drugs.
Two of the prisoners who sued the FDA were executed last year in the State of Arizona.
Professor of law of the University of Fordham Deborah DennÅ called the decision “very important” and said that if the thiopental acquired abroad “not know the conditions under which these substances were stored and transported, which could affect its quality”.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice, which represented the FDA in the case, declined to comment. The Agency may appeal the decision.
Bradford Berenson, lawyer for inmates on death row, said: “It is unfortunate that the FDA behave as if there were some kind of exception concerning the death penalty to lift the hand on the legal requirements, but it is gratifying that a federal judge recognizes that there is an exception thus”.
