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Dahlia Lithwick on Foreign Lethal Injection Drug

By Steve Hall

"Lethal Deflection," is her latest post at Slate. But in an opinion Tuesday signed by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, the court allowed the execution to go forward, finding ?[t]here is no evidence in the record to suggest that the drug obtained from a foreign source is unsafe. The district court granted the restraining order because it was left to speculate as to the risk of harm. ? But speculation cannot substitute for evidence that the use of the drug is ?sure or very likely to cause serious illness and needless suffering.' ? Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented without a published opinion. Arizona officials finally explained that the sodium thiopental they were using had come from Britain...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on October 28, 2010 (boomark / email).