Ohio has explored overseas options in its search for lethal injection drugs no longer available in the US despite a court ruling that banned such purchases, records show.
The prison where Ohio carries out executions successfully applied for an import license from the US Drug Enforcement Administration last year in its search for lethal injection drugs, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request. The license expires at the end of February next year.
"Law enforcement purpose," Richard Theodore, prisons agency policy adviser, said on a DEA questionnaire in November, prompted for the reason for applying.
As in many states, Ohio's traditional supply of injection drugs dried up as companies began putting them off-limits for executions after decades of more or less unrestricted use in capital punishment. The state got rid of its previous two-drug combo following a troubling 2014 execution that lasted 26 minutes.
The state declined to comment directly on the license, saying only it was still looking for lethal drugs.
"Ohio continues to seek the drugs necessary to carry out court-ordered executions. This process has included pursuing multiple options," JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said in an email.
In May, Nebraska's governor confirmed the state had obtained sodium thiopental from India. But two weeks later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the state cannot legally import a drug needed to carry out lethal injection.
Two years ago, in a case brought by death row inmates in Tennessee, Arizona and California, a federal appeals court ruled the FDA was wrong to allow sodium thiopental to be imported for use in executions.
Asked about Ohio's license, the FDA said it's seen no evidence besides news reports that sodium thiopental has been imported into the US recently by state prison systems.
"With very limited exceptions, which do not apply here, it is unlawful to import this drug and FDA would refuse its admission into the United States," spokesman Jeff Ventura said in an email.
Smith, of the prisons agency, declined to comment on the FDA ban.
In Ohio, the drugs are needed to restart executions in the state, which hasn't put an inmate to death since January 2014. Executions are scheduled to resume in early 2016, with 21 execution dates set over the next four years.
Other states, including Nebraska, have turned to a manufacturer in India, Harris Pharma, according to documents obtained from the Nebraska prisons department by the American Civil Liberties Union.
