Complaints used to delay executions
Inmates’ attorneys seeking expiration date of death penalty drugs
The state’s “refusal to provide this very standard information raises red flags” Jen Moreno, an assistant public defender representing Clarence Dixon
The Arizona Department of Corrections is prohibited from using expired execution drugs, but attorneys for Clarence Dixon say the department has not given them an expiration date of the compounded pentobarbital intended for his execution next week.
“This is especially concerning because ADCRR’s compounding pharmacist has already made errors in calculating the expiration date of the execution drug,” said Jen Moreno, an assistant public defender representing Dixon. He is scheduled to be executed May 11.
The Arizona Supreme Court threw out execution briefing schedules for Dixon as well as fellow death row prisoner Frank Atwood last summer, after the Department of Corrections disclosed that its compounding pharmacist revised the shelf-life of its execution drugs from 90 days to 45.
“ADCRR’s refusal to provide this very standard information raises red flags regarding whether the drugs will be expired at the time of Mr. Dixon’s execution,” Moreno said. “We are asking the federal district court to require ADCRR to provide this information to Mr. Dixon or stop his execution until ADCRR provides basic information about the drug, including supporting testing data, and stops shrouding the state’s execution process in secrecy.”
Attorneys for Atwood have also complained of receiving limited information from the state about the drugs it intends to use in his execution.
Atwood attorney Joseph Perkovich said the state has so far provided similar documentation to his team as the Dixon attorneys have received. He said the information was heavily redacted and lacking in specifics.
Dixon’s attorneys say the information they are requesting has been provided in the past by the Arizona Department of Corrections, and it’s necessary for the state to provide it to them again before his execution.
In a complaint filed in federal court Tuesday, attorneys for Dixon requested more information about the beyond use date (BUD) of the drugs to be used in his execution.
“ADCRR has produced eight heavilyredacted pages of drug testing results from unidentified batches of compounded pentobarbital that purport to establish a BUD in excess of 90 days, although none of the documents identify either the date the drug was compounded or an assigned BUD,” the attorneys write, saying the testing results are insufficient to determine when the pentobarbital will expire.
Dixon’s attorneys argue the refusal to provide this information violates his constitutional rights, because “it prevents him from determining whether ADCRR is capable of carrying out his death sentence” in accordance with state and federal law.
Knowing the BUD date is important, they argue, because “even minor deviations from the complex procedures for compounding pentobarbital can impact the safety and efficacy of the drug including resulting in insufficient potency.”
The complaint requests a preliminary and permanent injunction “preventing ADCRR from executing him until the department has demonstrated that the compounded pentobarbital has been assigned a BUD or expiration date beyond the date of his scheduled execution that is based on scientifically-valid specialized testing.”
The attorneys also requested an order saying failure to do so would violate Dixon’s rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Dixon was sentenced to death in 2008 for the 1978 killing of Deana Bowdoin, a 21-year-old senior at Arizona State University. Atwood was sentenced in Pima County in 1987 for the murder of an 8-year-old girl, Vicki Lynne Hoskinson.