Prison Officials Used Wrong Drug Labels During Recent Executions

Oklahoma prison officials have revealed the wrong drug labels were used in at least three recent executions.

On Friday, March 4, prison officials gave their testimonies during a federal trial into whether or not Oklahoma City's three-drug lethal injection method is unconstitutional.

The Director of the Department of Corrections, Scott Crow, and Justin Farris, his chief of operations, both testified to US District Judge Stephen Friot that despite the drugs being mislabeled, the correct drugs were still administered, ABC News reports.

Crow stated: 'I am 100% confident that all executions have used the proper drugs.'

Farris claimed that labels for rocuronium bromide were simply never replaced after being used in a training exercise. This resulted in the second drug used in Oklahoma's execution method, the paralytic vecuronium bromide, being mistakenly labelled as 'rocuronium bromide'.

While both drugs were noted as being paralytics, it is required by the state's execution protocols that inmates are notified by prison officials as to any alterations to the drugs.

Rocuronium bromide is also authorised for use in executions.

Oklahoma's execution protocols have been under scrutiny for years, yet despite this, Friot was still shocked by the reported mix-up.

Until October, the state had been barred from administering lethal injections for nearly seven years off the back of a series of court cases which resulted from an incident in September 2015.

In September 2015, the wrong drug was delivered for a lethal injection, and prison officials only found out moments before leading an inmate to his death.

Earlier in January that same year, it was discovered another inmate had been delivered the wrong drug too.

Friot said to Crow: 'After all we've been through [...] surely that was bordering on inconceivable to you?'

'Yes, sir. It was. I was not at all happy about that development,' Crow stated.

The second drug in the state's three-drug method, sedative midazolam, is also being analysed in the trial as to whether it is an effective pain blocker for inmates.

If the trial resolves that Oklahoma's current protocols are constitutional, then the lethal injection of 28 death row inmates - who challenged the three-drug method - will go ahead.

A report by the Department of Corrections is expected to be issued soon, with Monday set to be the final day of testimony.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]