WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — State governments in the United States hide how they import lethal injection drugs from Europe, advocacy group Witness to Innocence Director for Membership and Training Ray Krone told Sputnik on Tuesday.
“The states have a lot of secrets, and they only have to explain to the governor [how drugs get through] who supports them,” Krone said.
On Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled against limits to the use of the controversial drug midazolam in executions. The Court ruled that the use of midazolam does not violate the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibits cruel or unusual punishment.
Krone, a former death row inmate who was exonerated, said European companies have refused to export lethal injection drugs to the United States because they do not want them used to kill death row inmates.
The Supreme Court decision, he noted, was greeted with “a sigh of relief” by pro-death penalty attorney generals and departments of corrections officers so they can continue to execute people.
Witness to Innocence is an advocacy group helping exonerated death row survivors to make their voices heard in the debate over the death penalty, according to the organization’s website.
