Thursday, January 13, 2011

DEATH PENALTY NEWS

From yesterday’s LAPPL NewsWatch:

FDA HELPS STATES GET EXECUTION DRUG

The Food and Drug Administration, which has long maintained that it has nothing to do with drugs used in executions, has quietly helped Arizona and California obtain a scarce type of anesthetic so the states could continue putting inmates to death. The shortage of sodium thiopental has disrupted executions around the country. But newly released documents show the FDA helped import it from Britain.

ILLINOIS POISED TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY

Illinois was poised to become the first state since 2009 to abolish the death penalty after the state Senate on Tuesday approved the ban and sent it to Democratic Governor Pat Quinn for his signature. The Senate vote came after House approval late last week. The Senate vote was 32-25. Illinois has not executed anyone for more than a decade after former Republican Gov. George Ryan imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in January 2000 following a series of revelations that people had been sent to Death Row who were later found to be innocent.

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