Company objects to use of its drugs in executions

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio’s most recent batches of lethal injection drugs were produced by a company that wants states to stop using them for capital punishment, records show.

Lake Forest, Ill.-based Hospira Inc. says it manufactures the drugs, the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone, to enhance and save the lives of patients it helps treat. The company says it objects to their use in capital punishment.

Hospira’s position adds to the state’s difficulties obtaining drugs to put condemned inmates to death at a time when several other states, including Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, face similar challenges obtaining drugs.

Ohio purchased the Hospira-made drugs in 2012 and 2013 from San Francisco-based drug distributor McKesson.

The two drugs are required by Ohio’s execution policy. Their first use, in the prolonged execution last month of a pregnant woman’s condemned killer, sparked calls for a moratorium on capital punishment.