A federal judge has temporarily blocked an Oklahoma compounding pharmacy from selling a drug used in executions to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
This, after a federal judge at the U.S. District Court in Tulsa handed down the injunction Wednesday night (Feb. 12) in a lawsuit filed by Missouri death row inmate Michael Taylor.
As a result, Taylor’s lethal injection could be pushed back.
Taylor was set to be executed on Feb. 26, after pleading guilty to the 1989 abduction, rape and stabbing death of a 15-year-old Kansas City girl.
His attorneys argued that several recent executions using the specific drug, could cause Taylor ‘inhumane pain’ during the lethal injection.
His attorneys questioned whether the pharmacy in question can legally produce and deliver the execution drug.
The lawsuit also alleges that the pharmacy out of Tulsa is breaking federal law each time it sells the drug out of state because it’s not overseen by the Food & Drug Administration.
In addition, Taylor’s attorneys have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case against Missouri’s lethal injection protocol.
The name of the pharmacy selling the drug has not been released.
