Did they really use Nembutal? It is a barbiturate. It is rarely used to today.
Nembutal (Pentobarbital)
Pentobarbital, a barbiturate, is used in the treatment of insomnia. It is also used as a sedative to relieve anxiety and induce sleep.
www.nlm.nih.gov
David Batty
guardian.co.uk, Thu 22 Sep 2011 00.46 BST
The case of death row inmate Troy Davis should spur the European Union into imposing stringent controls on drugs used in lethal injections to prevent EU companies from being complicit in further US executions, according to human rights campaigners.
Pentobarbital, one of the three drugs set to be used to kill Davis, was bought from the Danish pharmaceutical company Lundbeck before it announced strict controls on the sale of the drug earlier this summer.
Lundbeck, which manufactures the drug in the US under the tradename Nembutal, now demands that its US distributors sign an agreement stating that they will not make pentobarbital, which is a sedative with a wide range of uses, available for prisons using it for lethal injections.
Maya Foa, investigator for human rights charity Reprieve, said the dose that could be used to kill Davis if his execution in a Georgia death row prison goes ahead, was among batches obtained prior to Lundbeck's restrictions on the use of the drug.
She added: "States that carry out lethal injections will still have a decent but not excessive supply of pentobarbital. Most will have about 12 doses. But they are unable to get extra doses."
Davis execution was delayed until the Supreme Court makes a decision on whether or not to grant him a stay of execution.
MEP Sarah Ludford, who lobbied for the UK export ban on three drugs used in lethal injections, said she hoped Davis' case would persuade the European Union to impose stringent control to prevent EU companies from being complicit in future executions.
Ludford said: "This is a tragic case, a seriously flawed case. But if there's any commemoration we can make to Troy Davis it's that there's a no EU company complicit in executions in the future."
The Liberal Democrat MEP said she hoped the case would lead to the European Commission adding the relevant drugs to the torture goods regulation, which would prevent them from being used in cruel or inhuman..."