“Given its recent actions, we are concerned that DOJ may renew its efforts to obtain pentobarbital from non-FDA-regulated pharmacies for use in future federal executions,” Raskin and Pressley wrote. “This would be consistent with the actions of certain states that have continued using single-drug pentobarbital in state executions.”Pentobarbital is a barbiturate that depresses the central nervous system and that, given in a high dosage, causes the heart to stop.
But pharmaceutical companies later refused to allow those drugs to be used in executions, forcing the federal government and many state governments to seek an alternative. Then-Attorney General William Barr had approved reworked execution protocols that called for using pentobarbital alone.“extreme pain” as he received a dose of pentobarbital.