The reason for Nebraska being GOP-majority, but ignoring their Governor and a few GOPers regarding the death penalty has been revealed:
The popular drug used for lethal injections is no longer produced in the US and the state bought vials from a man running an Indian company in 2011 before the Feds stepped in, seized the drugs and destroyed them.
Legislature paperwork shows the minority in Nebraska had promised that lethal injection drugs would be available in 2015, but most weren't going to risk the state getting in trouble again and voted against the death penalty instead. In 2011, Nebraska switched from the electric chair to injections and after that FDA fiasco all death row inmates were spared.
The 2011 emails showed that a man, Chris Harris, in India had contacted the state the year the country ran out of sodium thiopental and sold many shipments. There is no confirmation Harris is a certified a pharmacist and the media has gone as far enough to label him a middle man. His website says under construction and neither phone calls nor emails have been answered.
Harris also claims his company is producing the drug for two other states. The Freedom of Information Act will be used to pinpoint the two states.
Quote:
In Nebraska, the intentions of the governor and attorney general were thrown into doubt Friday when an official with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the state can’t legally import one of the two drugs, an anesthetic called sodium thiopental.
“At this time, we have no indication, aside from media reports, that sodium thiopental has recently been imported into the United States by state officials or correctional systems,” said Jeff Ventura with the FDA. “With very limited exceptions, which do not apply here, it is unlawful to import this drug, and the FDA would refuse its admission into the United States.”
The two drugs purchased from the foreign supplier are part of the state’s three-drug lethal injection protocol.
After being informed of the FDA’s statement, James Foster, a spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Corrections, said the agency has been advised by the attorney general that its actions are “proper and legal.”
The governor announced the purchase of the drugs on May 14. His office has not directly answered whether the drugs had met FDA approval. Rather, the governor’s spokesman has said that the drugs would be tested for purity by an independent laboratory after their arrival.
Ricketts said Friday that he had no timetable for when the lethal injection drugs will arrive from India. Based on emails obtained through a public records request, the supplier said he would ship the drugs within 60 days.
|
http://www.omaha.com/news/legislatur...47170b978.html
Nebraska still wants to execute the men on death row, but the new repeal comes into place in three months and without the drugs the prisoners fates are in question.
Here's a video explaining the whole thing and showing the emails:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/w...g-454289987520
