Credit: Brad Gregg

Just when it looked as if Oklahoma might need to slow down on
executions, the state secured 20 additional lethal doses of the chemical
needed to kill death row inmates. Close call!

It
had been touch and go for a while. In the midst of a nationwide
shortage of the anesthetic, Oklahoma corrections officials only had a
single dose available. Death row inmate Michael Hooper, whose execution
is just a month away, had even filed a lawsuit, contending the execution
could be tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment in case that dose
didn’t do the trick.

Supply
and demand has really put a crunch on the whole execution game. Texas,
for instance, has had lots of pentobarbital but little of another drug
needed for their three-drug execution cocktail. The Lone Star State has
now decided to also become the Lone Anesthetic state, announcing that
from now on it only will use pentobarbital for its state-sanctioned
killing. Waste not, want not, don’cha know.

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