Presenting evidence that the state of Virginia purchased 150 milligrams of pentobarbital from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Fairchild’s attorneys want Oklahoma to purchase the drug from Texas or manufacture their own in lieu of using midazolam which has been used in series of botched executions.
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“State law prohibits the agency from disclosing the identity of the supplier of lethal injection drugs”, it said.
In a world where it’s harder and harder for death penalty states to get their skeleton-like hands on execution drugs, Texas may be filling that bad void.
“It was my belief this information would be kept on the ‘down low, ‘” the pharmacist wrote to state prison officials.
The answer may be nobody. His attorneys point to documents that show the Texas Department of Criminal Justice sold pentobarbital to Virginia in late August.
Oklahoma uses a drug called midazolam, which inmates say does not protect them from an excruciating death.
In a court filing Thursday, the state said former inmates who stepped forward to aid Richard Glossip have a checkered past and could only offer questionable testimony.
It’s not clear if Texas has given the drug to any other death penalty states.
States across the nation have struggled to obtain execution drugs because pharmaceutical companies have been pressured to stop selling them to prisons for lethal injections.
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On Friday, Texas confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it sent the drugs to Virginia, but would not comment on how the drugs were made.
