Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-7955_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 9

Cite as:  576 U. S. ____ (2015) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

Penalty  Opponents,  N. Y.  Times,  Mar.  30,  2011;  Koppel, 
Drug  Halt  Hinders  Executions  in  the  U. S.,  Wall  Street 
Journal, Jan. 22, 2011, p. A1.  That effort proved success-
ful, and in January 2011, the company announced that it 
would  exit  the  sodium  thiopental  market  entirely.    See 
Hospira,  Press  Release,  Hospira  Statement  Regarding 
PentothalTM  (sodium  thiopental)  Market  Exit  (Jan.  21, 
2011).

After  other  efforts  to  procure  sodium  thiopental  proved
unsuccessful, States sought an alternative, and they even-
tually  replaced  sodium  thiopental  with  pentobarbital, 
another  barbiturate.  In  December  2010,  Oklahoma  be-
came the first State to execute an inmate using pentobar-
bital.  See Reuters, Chicago Tribune, New Drug Mix Used
in Oklahoma Execution, Dec. 17 2010, p. 41.  That execu-
tion occurred without incident, and States gradually shifted 
to  pentobarbital  as  their  supplies  of  sodium  thiopental 
ran out.  It is reported that pentobarbital was used in all
of  the  43  executions  carried  out  in  2012.  The  Death 
Penalty  Institute,  Execution  List  2012,  online  at  www.
Internet 
deathpenaltyinfo.org/execution-list-2012 
materials as visited June 26, 2015, and available in Clerk 
of  Court’s  case  file).    Petitioners  concede  that  pentobarbi-
tal, like sodium thiopental, can “reliably induce and main-
tain  a  comalike  state  that  renders  a  person  insensate  to
pain”  caused  by  administration  of  the  second  and  third 
drugs in the protocol.  Brief for Petitioners 2.  And courts 
across the country have held that the use of pentobarbital 
in  executions  does  not  violate  the  Eighth  Amendment. 
See,  e.g.,  Jackson  v.  Danberg,  656  F. 3d  157  (CA3  2011); 
Beaty  v.  Brewer,  649  F. 3d  1071  (CA9  2011);  DeYoung  v. 
Owens,  646  F. 3d  1319  (CA11  2011);  Pavatt  v.  Jones,  627 
F. 3d 1336 (CA10 2010).

(all 

Before  long,  however,  pentobarbital  also  became  una-
vailable.  Anti-death-penalty advocates lobbied the Danish
manufacturer of the drug to stop selling it for use in exe-