DEA Seizes Georgia's Lethal Injection Drug

Georgia’s supply of sodium thiopental, part of the lethal drug cocktail used to execute criminals, has been siezed by the DEA because it may have been imported incorrectly. Obama's Team DEA is afraid the drug could be fatal to death row inmates.

ATLANTA — The Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday seized the state of Georgia’s supply of a key lethal injection drug less than two months after the state executed a man who unsuccessfully argued it was bought from a “fly-by-night” supplier in Britain.

Agency spokesman Chuvalo Truesdell wouldn’t elaborate on exactly why the DEA wanted to inspect Georgia’s supply of sodium thiopental, a sedative that is part of a three-drug cocktail used in executions that has been in short supply since the sole U.S. manufacturer stopped making it.

“We had questions about how the drug was imported to the U.S.,” he said. “There were concerns.”