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#BREAKING Today, a group of physicians & med experts wrote an open letter to death penalty states asking them to give up their execution drugs: Doctors need them to treat COVID patients on ventilators as sedatives & paralytics - sometimes used in executions - are running short.
Different death penalty states use different protocols, and different combinations of drugs. Many rely at least in part on sedatives, which are needed to put people on ventilators. But like the ventilators themselves, there aren't enough drugs: https://www.vox.com/2020/4/6/21209589/coronavirus-medicine-ventilators-drug-shortage-sedatives-covid-19
"Sedatives & paralytics are already in dangerously short supply across our nation and will become scarcer as this virus continues to sweep through our hospitals," the medical experts wrote in their letter.
"Four drugs in many of your states’ execution protocols, midazolam, vecuronium bromide, rocuronium bromide, and fentanyl, are currently listed on shortage by the American Society of Health‐System Pharmacists."
Even as death penalty states hold on to stores of these drugs, some are already being rationed at bedside, the letter said.
"Other drugs used in executions such as rocuronium Br, cisatracurium besylate, & etomidate are also needed in ICUs for intubation &mechanical ventilation"
"Other drugs used in executions such as rocuronium Br, cisatracurium besylate, & etomidate are also needed in ICUs for intubation &mechanical ventilation"
It's not clear how many of each drug death penalty states have collectively, the medical experts said, but:
"Our research suggests that the drugs currently stockpiled by your states could be used to treat hundreds of COVID‐19
patients."
"Our research suggests that the drugs currently stockpiled by your states could be used to treat hundreds of COVID‐19
patients."
The biggest death penalty state, Texas, uses a drug that isn't mentioned in the letter (pentobarbitol). But here's a handy chart of which states use the drugs mentioned: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/lethal-injection/state-by-state-lethal-injection-protocols
As @MauriceChammah and I wrote last month, the coronavirus is disrupting the death penalty in some places anyway.
Since our story, two more executions in Texas were pushed back. So it's not clear any states would immediately need those drugs. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/03/23/how-coronavirus-is-disrupting-the-death-penalty
Since our story, two more executions in Texas were pushed back. So it's not clear any states would immediately need those drugs. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/03/23/how-coronavirus-is-disrupting-the-death-penalty
And here's a story on the letter from the top of this thread: https://www.businessinsider.com/doctors-ask-to-use-death-penalty-drugs-for-covid-19-2020-4?fbclid=IwAR0V6j0Xf6bq0dARe_8VG6aFnuaFQPKDdGAwt-zn1jCW-1glucIiMhw3XlI
