Man executed amid death-drug row

18 August 2011 Last updated at 12:48 ET

If he is executed as expected, Jackson will be the 31st prisoner put to death in the US this year

The US state of Virginia is set to execute a convicted murderer and rapist with a lethal injection, despite objections from the drug manufacturer.

Jerry Jackson is scheduled to die on Thursday night for the murder of 88-year-old Ruth Phillips.

A shortage of drugs used in past US executions has forced Virginia authorities to rely on an epilepsy drug manufactured by Danish firm Lundbeck.

Lundbeck has said it opposes the "distressing misuse" of its product.

The drugs that are to be used to execute Jackson were obtained before Lundbeck imposed strict controls on the distribution of pentobarbital, a drug used to treat severe epilepsy.

The company has strongly objected to its product's use in capital punishment, but declined to halt production, citing medical need for it.

Difficulty obtaining drugs

Jackson was convicted and condemned to death in 2002 on two counts of capital murder, rape and other charges relating to the death of Ms Phillips.

Prosecutors said he climbed in her bathroom window during an attempted burglary, then sexually assaulted her and killed her after she awoke and confronted him.

The execution is planned for 21:00 local time (01:00 GMT) at Greensville Correction Center

His execution, scheduled for Thursday night, comes amid a global effort by drug manufacturers to prevent their products from being used in US executions - whether for moral, regulatory or public relations concerns.

Amid the difficulty obtaining execution drugs, US states have had to experiment with different ways to kill prisoners without violating the US constitution's bar on "cruel and unusual punishments", analysts say.

Virginia, like many of the 34 out of 50 US states which allows capital punishment, uses a "cocktail" of three drugs to execute condemned prisoners.

If all goes according to plan, the first drug renders the prisoner unconscious, a second paralyses the prisoner (thus masking signs the first drug worked or did not work) and third drug stops the heart.

"A lot hinges on the first drug," Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a research organisation, told the BBC.

"It causes unconsciousness, and if that doesn't work well, the next drugs are very painful."

Epilepsy fight

For years, the states used a drug called sodium thiopental in the first stage, but in 2010 the drug's only US manufacturer, Hospira, announced it was ceasing production.

Some US states turned to Dream Pharma, a British firm operating in Acton, West London, for sodium thiopental, until a ban on exports imposed in December 2010.

Amid trouble obtaining sodium thiopental, the states this year have turned to pentobarbital.

So far in 2011, US states have executed 23 prisoners using that drug, prompting strong condemnation from Lundbeck.

While the drug, sold under the brand name Nembutal, comprises less than 1% of the company's sales, Lundbeck said it declined to cease production because doctors it had surveyed said they would have trouble treating severe epilepsy without it.

But the company last month announced restrictions on the drug's distribution in an effort to keep it from being shipped to prisons in US states that practice capital punishment.

Under that programme, Lundbeck will review orders for pentobarbital and deny them to prisons in capital punishment states.

Purchasers will have to sign a form affirming the drug is for their own use and will not be used for capital punishment and that they will not re-distribute the drug without the company's approval.

"While the company has never sold the product directly to prisons and therefore can't make guarantees, we are confident that our new distribution program will play a substantial role in restricting prisons' access to Nembutal for misuse as part of lethal injection," chief executive Ulf Wiinberg said.

Unless the US Supreme Court intervenes, Jackson will be executed on Thursday night at the Greensville Correction Center in Jarratt, Virginia, using the three-drug cocktail with pentobarbital.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-us-canada-14579136

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