Lethal Injection Issues Prompt Government To Postpone Death Row Inmate Execution

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has been forced to delay the execution of Kareem Jackson amid lethal injection issues.

In states where the death penalty is still legal, the preferred method is lethal injection.

However, as drug companies block the use of their drugs in executions, states like Ohio are finding it hard to source alternatives.

This means that executions of inmates like Jackson have been delayed.

Southern Ohio Correctional Facility

Jackson was sent to death row back in 1997 after being convicted of murdering two men, Antonio Hunter and Terrance Walker, during a robbery.

Evidence from the trial revealed that Jackson and four others decided to rob Hunter and Walker, with Jackson later being arrested and indicted on murder and aggravated robbery charges.

He was set to be executed on 15 September 2022.

However, now it seems that Jackson's execution could be delayed by more than three years due to lethal injection issues.

The provisional postponed date for Jackson's execution is now set to be 10 December 2025.

Alamy

Jackson isn't the only person whose execution has been delayed due to supply problems, as reported by Newsweek.

The governor's office issued a statement back in February to address the issue, which read: "Ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs" for use in executions "without endangering other Ohioans."

Drug companies banning the use of their products for lethal injections are nothing new.

Pfizer, the company behind one of the most prevalent Covid vaccines, stated in 2016 that it had introduced controls to ensure that none of its products were used in lethal injections, as reported by The New York Times.

Pfizer joined other 20 US and European drug companies to ban their products from being used during executions.

Alamy

Other large drug companies followed, and in 2017 Johnson and Johnson also followed suit, saying: "We do not support the use of our medicines for indications that have not been approved by regulatory authorities, such as the US FDA. We do not condone the use of our medicines in lethal injections for capital punishment."

The last execution in Ohio was in July 2018, and as companies ban the use of their products in lethal injections it looks like more execution postponements could be expected.

Forty-five of the 68 execution dates scheduled from August 2018 to the end of this year being rescheduled.

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