On February 2, the national law firm of Sidley Austin LLP filed a suit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in federal court on behalf of six death row inmates from Arizona, California, and Tennessee. The suit seeks to compel the FDA to bar the importation or use of unapproved sodium thiopental, a drug used by most states in lethal injections, but no longer available in the U.S. The plaintiff's brief states that, following a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental in 2010, the FDA illegally allowed prison officials to obtain the lethal injection drug from sources outside of the U.S., while refusing to investigate the safety and purity of the imported drugs. The inmates are represented by Bradford A. Berenson, a former associate counsel to President George W. Bush and a partner at Sidley. In a statement released by the law firm, Berenson said, "The law requires FDA to ensure that only safe, effective drugs are brought into the United States. When the agency allowed states to import unapproved sodium thiopental, it abdicated its responsibilities and violated federal law." Berenson, a supporter of the death penalty, also said that the lawsuit is "not about halting executions but rather about ensuring that illegal drugs are not used in carrying out otherwise lawful sentences." Read full press release from Sidley Austin LLP and read Complaint filed against FDA.
Gil Garcetti, the former district attorney of Los Angeles who pursued numerous death sentences, recently said California's death penalty is dysfunctional and the resources spent on it should be diverted to more pressing needs. In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Garcetti said the death penalty causes ongoing torment to family members and friends of murder victims: "The living victims of a particular crime might think that a death verdict provides closure, but for most, there was no such closure." Garcetti said state funds spent on implementing the death penalty can be better used elsewhere: "California's death penalty does not and cannot function the way its supporters want it to. It is also an incredibly costly penalty, and the money would be far better spent keeping kids in school, keeping teachers and counselors in their schools and giving the juvenile justice system the resources it needs. Spending our tax dollars on actually preventing crimes, instead of pursuing death sentences after they've already been committed, will assure us we will have fewer victims . . . ."