American states that apply the death penalty have the greatest difficulty in obtaining the necessary lethal substances, due to the opposition of pharmaceutical companies who do not want to be associated with the death penalty. And before their execution in early February, two Texas inmates, John Balentine and Wesley Ruiz, complained that the lethal injections they were to receive contained a supposedly expired substance that could cause them pain.
The lawyers for those sentenced to death thus filed a request in December 2022, demanding that the authorities of this southern state ban the use of pentobarbital, a barbiturate. They accuse Texas of using “long expired” products that “could act unexpectedly, clog intravenous lines during execution, and cause unnecessary suffering,” according to court filing information.
Violating “their right not to suffer cruel punishment”
Wesley Ruiz, 43, had been sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in 2007 and John Balentine, 54, for a triple murder in 1998. The two men have repeatedly claimed that racial prejudice had tainted their respective trial. They also claimed that the use of expired substances during their execution “would violate their right not to suffer cruel punishment”.
Following this request, Judge Catherine Mauzy ordered on January 10 during an emergency hearing the suspension of all executions in Texas, on the basis that it was “more likely than not” that the stock of pentobarbital could “be expired”, the Texas authorities having not provided evidence to the contrary, according to the local press. The Attorney General of Texas immediately seized an appeals court which overturned Judge Mauzy’s decision. Wesley Ruiz was executed by lethal injection on February 1 and John Balentine on February 8.
Doses expired more than 600 days ago?
Texas has executed 581 people since 1982 – when lethal injections began in the United States – nearly five times more than any other US state, and more than a third of the national total, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The executions of five detainees are still scheduled in Texas for 2023, some intending to pursue the legal action launched by MM. Ruiz and Ballentine. A hearing is scheduled for March 20.
“The substances for lethal injections comply with their date of use and have been duly tested”, for their part assured AFP the Texas criminal authorities, who have been buying a preparation of pentobarbital for almost ten years. This is prepared by a few state pharmacies anonymously for fear of reprisals, with a powdered ingredient, according to lawyers for MM. Ruiz and Ballentine.
If frozen, a sterile medicated preparation like this has a shelf life of 45 days, according to pharmacy expert Michaela Almgren, cited in the two convicts’ motion. According to data seen by Ms. Almgren, the last purchase of pentobarbital by Texas authorities was made in March 2021, so any of those doses have been expired for more than 600 days. Another batch from 2019 has been expired for more than 1,300 days. Yet these preparations have been given new expiration dates in September and November 2023, the court document alleges.
