May 30, 2012, 12:05 AM
California prison officials are trying to keep possession of a scarce lethal injection drug, contesting a federal court order making it illegal to use “foreign manufactured” sodium thiopental. In late 2010, California was one of several states scrambling for thiopental, an...
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May 23, 2011, 12:05 AM
The highest levels of the United States government were initially unsure how to respond last year when California and other states began a worldwide scramble for a scarce lethal injection drug, e-mails between federal officials show. Ten states went abroad to purchase sodium thiopental, an...
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April 11, 2011, 12:05 AM
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s supply of a key lethal injection drug is lab-certified as sterile and sufficiently potent. Prison officials sent off a share of their sodium thiopental for testing in January to confirm the drug was manufactured properly. The...
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March 23, 2011, 12:06 AM
UPDATE: Records obtained by the ACLU of Northern California from the Food and Drug Administration confirm that California prison officials were among those who purchased sodium thiopental from Dream Pharma. On Dec. 9, Benjamin T. Rice, an attorney for the state, notified an FDA official in New...
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February 4, 2011, 12:05 AM
For months, officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have faced a stream of questions about their 521 grams of sodium thiopental, a key lethal injection drug. And now attorneys representing death row inmates want to put former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger under...
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January 11, 2011, 12:05 AM
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation doesn’t have to release the names of its lethal injection drug suppliers, a state judge ruled on Monday. But prison officials might have to produce their communications with former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his aides about...
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January 7, 2011, 12:05 AM
California’s corrections department appears to have received a key lethal injection drug via a London wholesaler working out of a driving school’s office. The Arizona Department of Corrections bought sodium thiopental from Dream Pharma Ltd., according to a Sept. 28 invoice obtained...
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December 17, 2010, 12:05 AM
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has a secret lethal injection drug supplier. This anonymous exporter is a British company (price quotes are in “pounds sterling”), apparently based in London. It has experience moving pharmaceuticals through U.S. Customs...
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December 9, 2010, 12:05 AM
California has amassed a stockpile of a key lethal injection drug, making the state medically capable of resuming executions, though not legally permitted to do so. That duality is likely to persist. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is tangled in multiple...
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November 19, 2010, 12:06 AM
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit this week seeking to force the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to release records detailing how the agency obtained a key lethal injection drug. Officials have refused to disclose the source of the state's 12 grams...
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