Major pharmaceuticals have been intimidated by death penalty abolitionists into withholding drugs used to execute murderers
Missouri executed Herbert Smulls, 56, Wednesday for the 1991 robbery-murder of a St. Louis jewelry store owner. The execution was delayed for a day because his lawyers filed last minute appeals arguing the by refusing to divulge the identity of the compounding pharmacy that supplied Missouri with pentobarbital, the state was making it impossible to know whether the drug could cause pain and suffering during the execution. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop Smulls’ execution.
The lawyers did what lawyers do best … lie.
Death penalty abolitionists have intimidated major pharmaceutical companies into withholding drugs used to execute murderers. Death penalty states have had to turn to compounding pharmacies to obtain the drugs needed to carry out executions. Abolitionists have succeeded in several instances in obtaining the identity of the supplying compounding pharmacies.
In those cases wherein the compounding pharmacies have been identified, they too have been intimidated into withholding any further supplies of execution drugs. In a Texas case, one compounding pharmacy which had been identified was hounded by death penalty opponents into demanding that the pentobarbital it had sold to the state be returned.
Make no mistake about it, the lawyers for the late Mr. Smulls were much more interested in obtaining the identity of the compounding pharmacy so it would be intimidated into withholding any further execution drug supplies from the state, than they were concerned about any possible pain and suffering their murderous client might experience.
As I’ve often said before, the only difference between a lawyer and a liar is the spelling!
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