Results matching “FDA ”

Suspect in Young Girl's Death Captured After Shootout: Three weeks after a 6-year-old girl's body was found wrapped in a tarp in the middle of a northern Texas street, police finally identified the suspect as being her 17-year-old neighbor and arrested him after engaging in a shootout at his home.  Fox News reports that an officer was being treated for a gunshot wound to the leg and the suspect, Tyler Holder, is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head after authorities were forced to return fire.  Authorities believe that Holder sexually assaulted and suffocated the young girl before leaving her body in the middle of the road near her home.

Federal Court Rules States may Keep Lethal Injection Drug: A federal court ruled in the favor of several states and decided that they won't need to surrender their  lethal-injection drug supply despite the fact that the drugs were imported illegally.  Kevin O'Hanlon of the Lincoln Star Journal reports that states were forced to buy the lethal-injection drug, sodium thiopental, oversees after U.S. manufacturers quit producing it due to death-penalty opposition coming from their over-seas customers.  The court also decided that the FDA will no longer be allowed to accept shipments of the drug to the U.S. in the future.  Our Foundation filed a brief in this case encouraging Tuesday's holding.

NY Child Pornography Charges to be Dropped After Search Warrant Error: A New York man facing child pornography charges after more than 100 videos were seized off of his home computer may walk free because the search warrant executed by police listed the wrong address.  Fox News reports that Yuri Bershchansky was being pursued by Department of Homeland Security agents who "accidentally switched" the number of his apartment when writing out the details of the search warrant.  Prosecutors are reviewing their options, and may appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Woman Found to be Posing as a Pro-Zimmerman Rally Supporter: A Texas woman who generated a lot of controversy after holding a sign that said "We're racist & proud" at a pro-Zimmerman rally appears to have been planted there to draw negative attention.  Jim Hoft of The Gateway Pundit reports that the protestor, Renee Vaughan, has worked for a "far left environmental group" and was attempting to smear the pro-Zimmerman campaign by saying things like "we're better because we're white."  When asked if she was a racist by a reporter Vaughn replied  "there are people here who are racist and apparently think that's OK. I'm not one of them. I'm being sarcastic."     

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today decided Cook v. FDA, the lethal injection drug importation case. CJLF filed an amicus brief in this case.  The point we briefed related to the portion of the order directing the FDA to recover the sodium thiopental previously imported and presently in the possession of the States.  Agreeing with our brief, the court held that the District Court had no authority to issue this part of the order.  By doing so, it adjudicated the interests of parties not before the court, the States, in violation of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19.

In the remainder of the opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the holding that the FDA was required by law to stop the importations at the border.  This part will likely have no immediate practical effect, because no States are presently importing lethal injection drugs as far as we know.  Even so, Congress should amend the statute.  The baseline requirement for FDA approval of drugs is that they be "safe" and "effective," and for lethal injection those requirements are mutually exclusive.

Federal Court Considers Lethal Injection FDA Case: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit court heard argument in Cook v. FDA today. Michael Doyle of McClatchy Newspapers had this pre-argument article. In the lawsuit, death-row inmates from multiple states argue that the FDA's importing of lethal-injection drug sodium thiopental for executions is not part of the approved uses of the drug. The lawsuit was initially filed by torture killer Daniel Wayne Cook of Arizona, who sexually assaulted and murdered two men. Cook was executed last August. At one time, 35 states nationwide and the federal government, had the anesthetic drug included as part of a three-drug protocol to carry out the death penalty. Since 2009, several states stopped using the drug, and began using a single-drug protocol, when domestic manufacturing ceased. California is still considering switching to single-drug executions. Discussed by CJLF Legal Director Kent Scheidegger here.  Mike Scarcella has this post at BLT on the argument.  "[District Judge] Leon ordered the three states to return unused thiopental. The states, however, were not a part of the litigation in the trial court. In court today, [Circuit Judge] Sentelle questioned whether Leon had the authority to force the states to return their supplies of the drug."

GA Prison Gang Violence Becomes More Deadly:  Rhonda Cook of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports gang-related violence is on the rise in the Georgia prison system. In less than 11 months, 12 inmates and a guard were fatally stabbed in state prisons. The numbers represent a violent upward trend from nine deaths last year, seven inmate homicides in 2010 and 2011, and four in 2009. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, seven of the deaths last year were related to prison gang activity. Lax security in GA prisons is cited as part of the problem. Also, cell phones being smuggled into prisons are helping gangs coordinate assaults. So far, three homicides have occurred in 2013.

Federal Judge Rules Against Mental Evaluation of WY Death Row Inmate:  The Associated Press reports that U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson of Cheyenne ruled against a request from Wyoming to examine Dale Wayne Eaton's mental status. The lawyer for the state argued what is relevant to the case is Eaton's mental health at the time of the state court trial, not a current evaluation. Eaton, 59, is disputing his death sentence for the 1988 rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, 18, of Montana. Eaton's legal team had argued his trial lawyer failed to note his mental issues. A federal appeal is the only thing in the way of his lethal injection. A multi-week hearing on the evidence is set for July.

West Virginia Delegate Wants to Reinstate Death Penalty:  David Gutman of the Associated Press reports that Del. John Overington has introduced a bill to reinstate West Virginia's death penalty, his 27th consecutive attempt. Overington cites West Virginia as the only state in its region without the death penalty, aside from Maryland, as an enticement for dangerous criminals. He points out that if his state had the death penalty, convicted killer Ron Williams would not have been able to take more lives. Williams escaped after four years of incarceration. He killed a police officer in 1975 and another person in 1981. The state's last execution was carried out in 1959, and the death penalty was abolished in 1965.

Next Monday, the D.C. Circuit will hear argument in Cook v. FDA, No. 12-5176.  In that case (formerly Beaty v. FDA), the District Court held that the FDA had acted illegally in allowing importation of sodium thiopental for executions.  The court went on to order the FDA to inform the states that use of their existing stocks of thiopental is illegal and to take steps to recover it.  In issuing the latter part of the injunction, the court was untroubled by the fact that not a single word of the briefing or the court's opinion provided a legal basis for the order.  It was also untroubled by the facts that the states with a powerful interest involved were not parties to the action, the plaintiffs had not taken any steps to make them parties, and the plaintiffs had not shown any reason for an exception to the general rule against adjudicating the rights of nonparties in their absence.

In the Court of Appeals, CJLF appeared as amicus pointing out these problems.  The nonparty problem is the subject of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19.  The plaintiffs largely ignored the brief, just dropping one footnote about the general rule of not considering issues raised only by amici.  That rule has exceptions that the plaintiffs simply ignored.  Some issues must be considered whether a party raises them or not.  Subject matter jurisdiction is one, and Rule 19 is another.

Today the court issued the following order:

It is ORDERED, on the court's own motion, that the parties be prepared to address at oral argument on March 25, 2013, (1) the standing of the appellees to bring this case, with particular reference to the requirement of redressability; and the (2) Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19 and remedial issues raised in the brief of the amicus curiae Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.

A prior post with links to multiple earlier posts on this case is here.  CJLF's summary of argument and a link to the full brief are in this post.

Todd Ruger has this article in the NLJ (registration required) on sequestration cuts to the judicial branch, including federal defenders.

Money for federal defender organizations would be reduced by $53 million, which "could compromise the integrity of the defender function," [AOUSC Director Thomas] Hogan wrote. Allocations for defender salaries would be reduced by 4 percent, non-salary funds by 25 percent and training funds by 50 percent. Payment of Criminal Justice Act panel attorney vouchers could be deferred for almost three weeks at the end of the fiscal year.

Well, the first thing to cut is representation not authorized by law at all.  The second thing to cut is representation authorized only by Joe Biden's drafting error.

In Cook v. FDA, presently pending in the D.C. Circuit, the Federal Public Defender for Arizona is representing murderers from several states in a suit against the Food and Drug Administration for allowing importation of thiopental.  The cases federal defenders are authorized to take on at public expense are listed in 18 U.S.C. §3006A(a)(1)&(2), and civil suits against the FDA do not come remotely within any of the categories.  It's hard to have much sympathy with an office complaining of budget cuts when that office has been making patently illegal expenditures from its existing budget.

Many years ago, then-Sen. Biden snuck a provision into a drug bill, 21 U.S.C. §848(q)(4), to provide representation in capital cases for both federal defendants and state prisoners on habeas corpus.  A provision for continued representation in such things as successive petitions and executive clemency, which only makes sense for federal defendants, was misdrafted so that it applies to state prisoners as well.  (As a matter of code maintenance, the language was later moved without substantial change to title 18, where it belongs, as 18 U.S.C. §3599.)  Now we have federal taxpayer dollars paying for representation in purely state proceedings that follow the appointment in federal habeas, including representation in state collateral reviews and clemency petitions.  Congress needs to fix this so that the continuing representation provision only applies to federal defendants.

Tennessee Looks for New Execution Drug:  Brian Haas of the Tennessean reports that his state is looking for a replacement drug for its lethal injection process after its stock of sodium thiopental was confiscated by the federal government.  The confiscation was the result of a federal judge's March 2012 order announcing that the drug has been illegally obtained by states which use it as part of their three-drug execution protocol.  The ruling in Cook v. FDA (formerly Beaty v. FDA) has been appealed to the DC Circuit as reported in earlier posts available here.  Death penalty opponents were pleased with the ruling because it has delayed executions in some states.  The state is considering switching to the more widely available drug pentobarbital, which is in use in a single drug execution protocol is several states.   

Get Your Pot from a Vending Machine:  NBC news writer Jeff Black reports that California-based Medbox is gearing up to install vending machines dispensing marijuana for recreational users.  The company, which already has machines in Arizona, Massachusetts and Connecticut for "medial marijuana" users, is negotiating with officials Colorado and Washington, which recently legalized pot for recreational use.  A spokesman for Washington's Liquor Control Board said that their law requires that marijuana be sold within the confines of a retail outlet.  McDonalds, Wal Mart, Rite Aid?

Can it be a crime to give a lecture?   Has the FDA enforced the FDCA that way?  Harvey Silverglate has this op-ed in the WSJ:

Peter Gleason was a psychiatrist who devoted much of his professional life to caring for what government officials call "underserved populations." He would have been thrilled to learn that on Dec. 3 in New York, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a ringing opinion that vindicated the conduct for which he was indicted and arrested in 2006.

Unfortunately, Gleason did not live to see this welcome reversal of the federal government's crusade against him and the promotion of Xyrem--a drug widely used by physicians, including Gleason, to treat a number of medical conditions beyond what the federal Food and Drug Administration approved it for. Hounded for years, he saw his career and finances ruined by the relentless war waged against him by FDA bureaucrats and Justice Department prosecutors. Gleason committed suicide on Feb. 7, 2011.

Silverglate neglects to mention that the panel was actually divided 2-1.  The opinion is here.  The majority's concluding paragraph reads:

Accordingly, even if speech can be used as evidence of a drug's intended use, we decline to adopt the government's construction of the FDCA's misbranding provisions to prohibit manufacturer promotion alone as it would unconstitutionally restrict free speech. We construe the misbranding provisions of the FDCA as not prohibiting and criminalizing the truthful off-label promotion of FDA-approved prescription drugs. Our conclusion is limited to FDA-approved drugs for which off-label use is not prohibited, and we do not hold, of course, that the FDA cannot regulate the marketing of prescription drugs. We conclude simply that the government cannot prosecute pharmaceutical manufacturers and their representatives under the FDCA for speech promoting the lawful, off-label use of an FDA-approved drug.

The opinion strikes me as narrower and less "ringing" than one would gather from Silverglate's description.  Nonetheless, it does move the ball in the direction of less regulation, and less criminalization, of commercial speech.  Given the importance of the subject and the fact that the panel was divided, further review en banc or in the Supreme Court is a substantial possibility.

The murderers' suit against the FDA for allowing importation of the sodium thiopental used in lethal injections has been set for oral argument in the D.C. Circuit March 25.  The panel is Judges David Sentelle, Judith Rogers, and Douglas Ginsburg. 

Prior posts:

The FDA and Thiopental
South Dakota AG Defies Thiopental Seizure Effort
Another Great Plains AG With Backbone
State AGs to Holder: Appeal Beaty v. FDA
FDA Appealing Thiopental Ruling
Calif. defies order to turn over execution drug
CJLF Files Brief in Imported Thiopental Case

CJLF has filed an amicus brief in the D.C. Circuit in the case of Cook v. FDA.  This is the case where convicted murderers got an injunction against the FDA allowing any more imports of thiopental, and the judge also order the FDA to "notify" the states that their continued possession and use of the previously imported thiopental is illegal.  The latter holding is remarkable in that it was issued without a single sentence in the opinion to support it and in a case where the entities most affected were not parties.  The Summary of Argument is after the jump.

Maxine Bernstein has this story in the Oregonian:

A slide shown to the Governor's Public Safety Commission this summer categorized one quarter of the offenders who were sent to Oregon prisons in 2011 as "low risk."

That's fairly typical of the claims we hear all the time from the soft-on-crime crowd, trying to convince us we are wasting money and committing injustice by locking up people who neither need nor deserve to be locked up.  But it didn't sound credible to Clackamas County DA John Foote, and he poked beneath the surface to see how this classification was done.  He got the list and asked his fellow DAs check them out.

The list compiled was chilling: 57 committed a homicide or tried to kill someone; 78 assaulted someone, many in cases of domestic violence; 53 had committed robberies. Two were on death row, and 21 faced life sentences.

The offenders had been deemed low-risk based on a new actuarial tool Oregon adopted this month that's being used to determine an offender's likelihood of committing a new crime. Called the Public Safety Checklist, it considers an inmate's age, gender and adult criminal history in Oregon.  [Emphasis added.]

Wow.  A risk classification instrument that takes no account whatever of crimes committed in other jurisdictions or as a juvenile!

Craig Prins, executive director of Oregon's Criminal Justice Commission, helped create the new risk assessment. He acknowledged it doesn't consider an offender's out-of-state, federal or juvenile convictions. He called it simply one "piece of information" that can assist sentencing decisions.

I used to be general counsel for a company subject to FDA food labeling requirements.  If we had mislabeled our product the way Prins mislabels "low-risk" offenders, our entire inventory would have been confiscated, and we would have been shut down.

This is a serious matter.  Misclassifying criminals so that they are released when they should be locked up can kill innocent people.  Policy makers and the people must not accept the representations of "low risk" at face value.  They must be challenged and examined, and frauds like this one must be exposed.

Three cheers for DA Foote.

Paul Elias has this story for Associated Press:

California on Friday joined other states in defying a federal government order to turn over a key execution drug.

At issue is the drug sodium thiopental, one of three drugs California and dozens of other states use in lethal injections. It puts the inmate to sleep before fatal doses of two other drugs are delivered. California and others have been purchasing the drug oversees since the United States' sole manufacturer ceased production of the anesthetic in 2011.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in March ruled that the Food and Drug Administration erred in allowing the prisons to import the foreign-made drug. The judge ordered the FDA to confiscate all foreign-made sodium thiopental and to warn prisons that it was now illegal to use the drug. The FDA followed the Washington D.C.-based judge's order and sent demand letters to prisons. But beginning with Nebraska on April 20, more than a dozen states have refused to comply with the FDA order.

On Friday, California joined the protest in a letter sent to the FDA. With 725 Death Row inmates, California has the highest number of condemned prisoners.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation lawyer Benjamin Rice and the other states with foreign-bought sodium thiopental contend they aren't bound by the ruling made by a federal judge in Washington D.C. They also argue that the judge was wrong and urged the FDA to appeal.

We noted in this post on Tuesday that the letter was signed by 15 AGs, not including Kamala Harris.  Better late than never.

"The CDCR is unaware of any laws or imperative that would require it to return the thiopental in question," Rice wrote Domenic Veneziano, director of the FDA's import operations. Rice wrote that subjecting lethal injection drugs to the same regulations designed to prevent illegal sales of controlled substances is a "strained interpretation" of the law.

That paragraph refers to a different letter, dated May 1 although I hadn't seen it or any reference to it in the press until now.

The story also discusses the L.A. motion, noted here.

Tom Schoenberg reports for Bloomberg:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is appealing a federal judge's order that banned the importation of sodium thiopental and its use in executions.

The FDA, which filed a notice of appeal today in the federal court in Washington, is seeking to overturn a ruling in March favoring 21 death row inmates who challenged the agency's use of sodium thiopental, an imported drug given as anesthesia before a lethal injection is administered.

News Media Sues Idaho to Open Entirety of Executions to Public: Rebecca Boone of the Associated Press reports the Associated Press and 16 other organizations sued the state of Idaho on Tuesday, arguing that the news media and public have a First Amendment right to view all the steps of the state's lethal injection procedure. After the execution of William Bonin in California, the California First Amendment Coalition sued, saying the limited viewing access of executions violated the public's first amendment right. In 2002, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the argument from California officials that the restrictions were necessary to preserve the identity of the execution team. Idaho state officials said the decision did not apply to their procedures.

First Amendment Coalition of Arizona Wants to See Execution Preparation: Michael Kiefer of the Associated Press reports the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona was given "amicus" status in a federal lawsuit filed by several Arizona death row inmates that challenges the state's lethal injection procedures. The First Amendment Coalition of Arizona will argue the public has the right to witness executioners inserting the IV lines that deliver the lethal injection drugs to inmates.

15 States Urge Feds to Intervene in Lethal Injection Drug Ruling: Bill Mears of CNN reports 15 states on Monday called on the Food and Drug Administration to appeal a federal judge's decision in March to block the importation of thiopental, saying upcoming executions are being undermined. Judge Richard Leon also ordered state corrections departments to return their supply of thiopental to the FDA. The states called it a "flawed decision," and said, "If the (court) decision is not overturned, we as state attorneys general will be forced to take actions to ensure execution by lethal injection remains a viable option."

Lifers Could Qualify for Parole Sooner Under Louisiana Law: Ed Anderson of The Times-Picayune reports a bill that won final passage Tuesday and now heads to the Louisiana Governor will allow some non-violent, non-sex-crime offenders serving life sentences to be eligible for parole sooner, after serving a certain amount of their term. Inmates sentenced to life between the ages of 18 and 25 who have been model prisoners, are deemed low-risk if released, have completed 100 hours of pre-release programs, have obtained a GED or literacy certificate, and have completed drug rehabilitation if required, would be eligible for parole after serving 25 years of their life sentence. Those who meet the same conditions and were sentenced between the ages of 25 and 35 must serve 20 years of their life sentence. If sentenced between the ages of 35 and 50, offenders who meet all of the other conditions must serve 15 years of their sentence. Offenders sentenced to life at age 50 or older must serve at least 10 years and meet all of the other requirements.  

Fifteen state attorneys general have signed this letter to US AG Eric Holder, asking him to appeal the atrocious decision of the US District Court in DC in Beaty v. FDA.  This suit is an attempt to use the drug importation provisions of the Food, Drug,and Cosmetic Act, of all things, to try to choke off the supply of drugs for lethal injection.  This suit is focused particularly on thiopental.  See prior post.  The purpose of the FDCA is, of course, to ensure that medical patients have drugs that are safe and effective for medical treatment.  The FDA has long taken the position, correctly IMHO, that the Act has no application to lethal injection. See Heckler v. Chaney, 470 U.S. 821 (1985).  In this context, "safe" and "effective" are mutually exclusive.

The signers are the attorneys general of Oklahoma, South Dakota, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has a substantial stock of the thiopental at issue in the suit and was depending on it for its ability to carry out executions.  The Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris, is not among the signatories on the letter.  Update:  See subsequent post of May 25.  California has since joined the letter.

Following their neighbor to the north [see this post], Nebraska has refused to turn over its thiopental (the drug used for lethal injections) to the FDA.  Margery Beck reports for AP:

Nebraska will not surrender its supply of a controversial execution drug to the Food and Drug Administration because it believes the court order requiring it to do so is flawed, the state Attorney General's office indicated in a letter to the federal agency Friday.

James Smith, an assistant attorney general, suggested in the letter to the FDA that the agency should appeal U.S. District Judge Richard Leon's ruling on the drug, sodium thiopental. Leon ruled last month that the FDA was wrong to allow the drug into the country and he ordered the agency to immediately notify state correctional departments with foreign-manufactured stores of the drug, including Nebraska's, that its use is prohibited by law and that it must be surrendered.

"Other than the court's erroneous order, we are unaware of any evidence or reasons why the Department of Correctional Services should be required to return any thiopental in its possession," wrote Smith wrote, who also asked for contact information for the FDA's attorney and Justice Department officials who might be involved in deciding whether to appeal the ruling.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning issued a statement Friday saying that Nebraska's supply of sodium thiopental was purchased from a different supplier than the one cited in the case over which Leon presided, and that Nebraska's drug "was approved for importation by the U.S. DEA, FDA and Customs."

The FDA letter is here.  AG Bruning's response is here.

South Dakota has an attorney general with backbone.  He is fighting back against the attempts to strangle the death penalty with bogus litigation insufficiently resisted by the agencies that are the respondents.  Peter Harriman has this story for the Argus Leader.

In February last year, a group of murderers from Arizona, California, and Tennessee filed suit against the FDA claiming that agency was acting improperly in allowing imports of thiopental for use in lethal injection. 

Last month, Federal District Judge Richard Leon in D.C. issued a remarkable opinion, complete with exclamation points, accepting the murderers' arguments.  In addition to granting declaratory relief and enjoining the FDA from allowing further imports, the accompanying order says this:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the FDA:
1. immediately notify any and all state correctional departments which it has
reason to believe are still in possession of any foreign manufactured thiopental that the use of such drug is prohibited by law and that, that thiopental must be returned immediately to the FDA; ...

How is this wrong?  Let me count the ways.

First, the gnarled syntax is a crime against the English language.

Serial Killer's Letters Move Forward Execution: Brendan Farrington of the Associated Press reports serial killer David Alan Gore is set to be executed sooner than he expected. Over 5 years, Gore exchanged 200 pages of graphic letters with Las Vegas man Tony Ciaglia, who writes to numerous serial killers, relishing in the details of his murders. In the letters, Gore brags about raping and murdering four teenagers and two women, likening the urge to kill to sexual arousal and describing the murders of two 14-year-old girls as "a perfect experience." His letters were published by author Pete Earley in his book "Serial Killer Whisperer." Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers columnist Russ Lemmon also published a column discussing the case and the letters. On the same day, the editorial board brought the letters to the attention of Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), who signed the death warrant despite the 40 other men who have been on death row longer than Gore. Gore is set for execution April 12.

Steele Argues Trayvon Martin Exploited: Shelby Steele of the Wall Street Journal writes there are two tragedies which took place in the case of Trayvon Martin; first, an unarmed teenager committing no crime was shot dead, and second, since the 1960s, the black American identity has shifted from common humanity to historical victimization. Steele argues this shift in identity was the worst mistake black Americans could have made. He describes a generation of ambulance-chasing, stating the greatest power current black leaders have "lies in the manipulation of white guilt" through poetic truth. According to Steele, the tragedy in the death of Martin is not the possibility of white racism, particularly since his shooter, George Zimmerman, was Hispanic. The tragedy lies in the desire many black leaders have in combination with the media to exploit tragedies and further their agendas.

Access to Drugs Could Put Executions on Hold: Kimberly Leonard of iWatch News reports a federal judge ruled to block the import of sodium thiopental. An alternative for the lethal injection is pentobarbital, though it is expected that its supplies may become limited. With manufacturers selling pentobarbital directly to health care facilities and the drug having a shelf-life of about 18 months, the stockpiles states bought prior to distribution limitations may expire before use. While the FDA has not approved pentobarbital for use in executions or as anesthesia, Ed Elder, director at Lenor Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the use of drugs in executions may fall outside of FDA oversight, a position the FDA has taken in the past. Mike Rushford of the CJLF said the important thing is not which drugs states use specifically, but to simplify the process so arguments against lethal injections have little ground left to stand on. Rushford said concerns regarding lethal injections are "claims by people who wouldn't want to execute any murderer under any circumstances by any means." Whether states will be able to maintain access to lethal injections and continue executions remains to be seen.

Louisiana Lawmakers Seek to Rewrite Sex Offender Social Networking Ban: The Associated Press reports a bid seeking to rewrite a state law to ban certain sex offenders from social networking sites, such as Facebook, began moving through the Louisiana Legislature on Wednesday. The existing law is argued to violate a convicted sex offender's free speech protections and was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge. The bill is sought by Gov. Bobby Jindal and sponsored by Rep. Ledricka Thierry, and will more narrowly define what specific sites are banned in hopes that it could withstand a court challenge. Thierry's bill would ban anyone convicted of a sex offense against a minor or of video voyeurism from websites whose primary purpose is "facilitating social interaction with other users of the website and which allows users to create web pages or profiles about themselves that are available to the public or other users." The bill is heading to the full House for debate.
 

 

Federal District Judge Richard Leon ruled in favor of the murderers today in their challenge to the FDA allowing importation of thiopental for lethal injection.  Michael Kiefer has this story for the Arizona Republic.  The story quotes the opinion:

In the final analysis, the FDA appears to be simply wrapping itself in the flag of law enforcement discretion to justify its authority and masquerade an otherwise seemingly callous indifference to the health consequences of those imminently facing the executioner's needle. How utterly disappointing!

This post by Brian Vastag at the WaPo's health blog, The Checkup, does not relate directly to crime.  What it does discuss, among other things, is "publication bias."  Studies on one side of an issue may be more likely to be published than studies on another side, so just counting published studies may not be valid to get a feel for the state of the research.  There is a financial incentive to publish studies showing that new, patented, expensive drugs are effective and more so than the old off-patent drugs.  Nobody has much incentive to publish studies going the other way.  "Instead, the negative studies were buried on the FDA website, where only a specialist with a background in statistics could understand what they meant."

Is there a "publication bias" in criminal law?  The kind of financial interest this post notes for drugs is not present.  I suspect that Political Correctness has an effect, though, on what gets published in academic journals.

Female Travelers Targeted by TSA Workers: Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars.com reports an investigation by CBS 11 News found that female passengers are being targeted by TSA workers who are using body scanners to sexually harass women. One woman in Texas was forced to go through the body scanner three times after a female TSA screener asked her if she played tennis because she had a "cute" figure. The woman could hear the screener talking on her microphone to male TSA agents. After the third time she was forced to go through the body scanner, the men tried to say that the image was blurry, but the screener ended the ordeal and let the woman go. The investigation prompted New York Senator Charles Schumer to introduce legislation that would mandate every airport in the country to have a TSA-provided "passenger advocate" on duty at all times to respond to complaints. Critics say this position will likely just be filled by TSA workers, who have already proven they are not suitable candidates for the job. 

Death Row Inmates Challenge FDA: Tom Schoenberg of Bloomberg reports 21 death row inmates asked U.S. District Judge Richard Leon Thursday to order the Food and Drug Administration to block the future importation of sodium thiopental, a drug administered in executions in some states, and remove the supplies already in the possession of state governments. The inmates claim the FDA violated the law by allowing state departments of corrections to import the drug. The Justice Department urged Leon to dismiss the case, arguing the FDA's enforcement decisions cannot be challenged in court. Leon did not say when he would decide the case.

Soros Gives $500,000 to Three-Strikes Initiative: Nicholas Riccardi of the Los Angeles Times reports billionaire George Soros, a longtime supporter of liberal causes and non-California resident, donated $500,000 on January 30 to help finance a potential ballot measure that would weaken the three-strikes law in California. That same day, one of the measure's co-authors, Stanford law professor David Mills, gave $250,000 to the campaign. Mills is currently the largest contributor to the effort, with a contribution total that is is now $603,000.

Legislator, Victims' Group Demands Released Inmates Return to Prison: Red Bluff Daily News (CA) reports California Assemblyman Jim Nielsen and Crime Victims United of California are calling for the return to custody of dozens of inmates released on parole.  The inmates' releases were dictated by a 2010 Ninth Circuit decision that was overruled by the Supreme Court earlier this year. (See Swarthout v. Cooke.)  Nielsen says the Ninth Circuit ruling "has placed the public in danger," and the Governor and state parole board should take appropriate action to rescind the inmates' early releases.

With Death Penalty No Longer an Option, Charges Dropped: Prosecutors will "reluctantly" dismiss charges in two cases against Paul Runge, 41, an Illinois inmate serving life in prison for the sexual assault and murders of Yolanda Gutierrez, 35, and her daughter, Jessica Muniz, 10. Citing Illinois's recent abolition of the death penalty, DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin announced today that "it would not be a prudent use of the resources" of the office to try Runge for the 1995 murders of sisters Dzeneta and Amela Pasanbegovic. In March, Cook County prosecutors dropped three murder charges against Runge, also citing the state's abolishment of the death penalty. Lisa Balde of NBC Chicago has this story.

Although not directly on topic, this WSJ article by Gautam Naik describes the problem of medical studies published in prestigious journals that are later found to be wrong, sometimes incompetent, and occasionally fraudulent.

If this problem is so widespread in the medical field, where studies are relatively objective and usually unpolitical, how much greater is the problem in social sciences, including studies about crime?  Social science is generally softer, and methods that would be unacceptably unreliable for medicine are routinely used in social science.  Quasi-experiments are accepted where true experiments are impossible.  Would the FDA ever approve a drug with only quasi-experimental data to support its safety and effectiveness?  The article notes that a study not being double-blind is "a situation many investigators consider tantamount to fraud" in the medical field, but it is routine in social science.

On top of that, you have the Political Correctness quotient.  Sources of fraud or at least fudging in the medical arena include the monetary interests of drug manufacturers and the reputational interests of researchers, but the people in charge of reviewing the study for publication typically have no interest in the outcome.  With studies on politically controversial topics, however, the massive PC bias of academia means that studies with Politically Correct bottom lines will get less scrutiny than those with Politically Incorrect bottom lines.

What "studies show" is not necessarily so.

Suppose on a dry, clear, sunny day you are driving on a lightly traveled freeway.  A highway patrol officer clocks you at 71 where the speed limit is 70.  Is he obligated to pull you over and write a ticket?  Of course not.  Yes, you are in violation, but your conduct does not present the danger that is the underlying purpose of the speed limit law.  Driving 71 is not materially less safe than driving 70.  The officer has discretion to not cite you, and nearly all officers would refrain.

Federal regulation of drugs has two purposes:  to insure that drugs used for medical purposes are safe and effective and to keep them out of the hands of drug abusers.  Neither purpose is implicated by the use of drugs to execute a death sentence.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has apparently stepped into the controversy over importation of the sodium thiopental used in executions, seizing Georgia's supply.  Bill Rankin and Kristi Swartz have this story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  AP has this story.

Over at the Food and Drug Administration, more rational heads have prevailed.  That agency has recognized that the use of drugs for execution does not implicate the purposes of Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and does not come under its jurisdiction.  Under that act, the FDA regulates drugs to ensure they are "safe and effective" for medical use.  For lethal injection, "safe" and "effective" are mutually exclusive.

Hopefully, higher ups at DEA will countermand this order.  If not, the appropriate House committee should summon DEA officials to explain in an oversight hearing.

As the AP story notes, the legal issues have already been considered by the courts in the Hammond execution.  If there is any question about the purity of the drug, a simple laboratory analysis will resolve them.

In any case, this is one more reason to switch drugs as soon as possible.

D.C. attorneys, want to do some pro bono publico work?  Zoe Tillman at BLT has this post on an opportunity.  DC's Acting AG is looking for pro bono attorneys to lessen the office's crushing workload.

"Pro bono publico" is Latin for "for the public good."  The term is used for volunteer work by attorneys, but a great deal of what is done under that heading is actually contra bono publico.  Attorneys claiming that they are working "pro bono" conduct litigation that the public would be better off without, such as suing the FDA over its assistance rendered in importing the drugs needed for lethal injection.

Has America completely run out of worthy beneficiaries of pro bono assistance, such there is nothing left to do but help murderers avoid the execution of their well-deserved sentences?  I find that extremely doubtful.  More likely the problem is that helping regular folks with routine legal problems just isn't seen as boosting the firm's public profile.  They would rather do work that makes headlines, even if it means helping the bad guys.

Helping the DCAG with routine criminal cases won't make headlines, but it will get you some in-court experience you might not get otherwise, and you will know that your volunteer hours actually have been spent for the public good.

When the sodium thiopental shortage kerfuffle first arose, I cruised around the 'Net a bit to see who sells the stuff.  There are vendors in India.  Press reports indicate that only American and European sources are approved by the FDA for drugs for medical use.

But of course lethal injection is not a medical use.  The FDA has strict standards to ensure that drugs are safe and effective.  For lethal injection, "safe" and "effective" are opposites.  Some small amount of impurity that could cause a medical patient problems after waking up from the sedative would be a big problem for medical use.  For lethal injection, that is what lawyers call a moot question.

Sure enough, India is where Nebraska got its big stash, JoAnne Young reports in the Lincoln Journal Star.

Will opponents try to make this a basis of a legal challenge?  Of course.  They challenge anything and everything.  Will courts dismiss the challenge summarily?  They should.

This is all short term.  States should move to pentobarbital as quickly as their administrative procedures allow.

Matthew Perrone reports for AP,

The U.S. government says candy imported from Pakistan called Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge is not safe to eat. Who would have guessed?

The New York Times fancies itself as the nation's premiere newspaper, and in some ways it is.  Its editorial page, though, is among the worst of any major paper.  It is not just that the positions are monotonically "politically correct."  That is true of many, perhaps most, major papers in the country.  The problem is the assertions of fact made to support their opinions.  These assertions vary from misleading to outright wrong.

The NYT has this editorial in reaction to the Landrigan execution, noted here. The NYT is, of course, against the death penalty. No news there. But now they denounce "the particular barbarism of this form of execution," i.e., lethal injection, and this statement immediately follows a quote from Justice Stevens.  Of the methods that have been used in this country, this one is exceptionally bad relative to the others?  What utter nonsense.

In reality, lethal injection was adopted precisely because it is less painful than the methods previously used.  In 1992, the very same Justice Stevens urged the adoption of this method. "The unnecessary cruelty of [the gas chamber] convinced Arizona's Attorney General that that State should abandon execution by gas in favor of execution by lethal injection.  His conclusion coincides with that of numerous medical, legal, and ethical experts." Gomez v. United States District Court, 503 U.S. 653 (1992) (dissenting opinion).  Richard Ruelas in the Arizona Republic reports the history of the adoption of lethal injection in reaction to the Harding execution.

John Schwartz has this article in the NYT on the latest in the anti-DP movement's efforts to litigate every nook and cranny of the process just to bog it down.  The State of Arizona has located an alternate source of the drug used for lethal injection.  They don't want to reveal the source, as they know that company will be pressured not to sell it for executions. So of course the anti side sees this as another opportunity to litigate, litigate, litigate.

Claims that lethal injection drugs need to comply with the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act are absurd, as I am quoted saying in the article. That act is intended to ensure that drugs used for healing patients are safe and effective, and the whole point of an execution is to end the murderer's life.  The article also quotes FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess saying executions are "clearly not under our purview or authority."

One of the issues in the Albert Greenwood Brown execution (on which I post more a little later) is that the state's stock of sodium thiopental has an "expiration date" of October 1. Does that mean it could not be used to carry out an execution on, say, October 3?  Of course not.  From Johns Hopkins comes this explanation of drug expiration dates:

Think of expiration dates -- which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires be placed on most prescription and over-the-counter medications -- as a very conservative guide to longevity. The expiration date is a guarantee from the manufacturer that a medication will remain chemically stable--and thus maintain its full potency and safety -- prior to that date. Most medications, though, retain their potency well beyond the expiration date, and outdated medications, whether prescription or over-the-counter, are not usually harmful.