Another US execution to go ahead with British drugs

Another American man is to be executed by lethal injection using drugs supplied by a British pharmaceutical wholesaler based at a west London driving school. Dream Pharma was revealed by the BBC earlier this month as the source of sodium thiopental used in US executions.

When it was first exposed, Dream Pharma said it had only supplied the drug – an anaesthetic used as one of three drugs in lethal injection – to one prison in Arizona.

But tomorrow, another US state, Georgia, plans to execute Emanuel Hammond, who was convicted of murder 20 years ago, using drugs sent in July by Dream Pharma.  

Human rights charity Reprieve today claims that Matt Alavi – the company's sole shareholder – actually sent the drug to several US states last year.

Alavi's lucrative monopoly ended on November 29 when court action by Reprieve forced the British government to introduce an export ban on the chemical – but not before he rushed through a consignment of drugs to California sufficient to execute 85 prisoners in the month before, while campaigners furiously tried to unearth the identity of the 'British company' talked about in legal papers from a court case in Arizona.

Alavi had also claimed he did not know the sodium thiopental he supplied was to be used for executing prisoners. Given that the only other common use for sodium thiopental is to sedate women undergoing Caesarean operations, this seemed an unlikely story at the time.

Emails obtained by Reprieve show the Georgia Department of Corrections told Alavi his drugs would be used for "capitol [sic] punishment". Alavi said he was "more than happy to assist".

Reprieve contrasts Alavi's enthusiasm in dealing with the Georgia Department of Corrections with his refusal to help in efforts to obtain a stay of execution for Hammond.

Reprieve's Director Clive Stafford Smith said: "Tomorrow a man is set to die thanks to Dream Pharma's heartless pursuit of profit. The documentary evidence of Mr Alavi's enthusiasm is chilling, but I wonder if he would be as keen if he were forced to watch his lethal drugs in action. It is not too late for Mr Alavi to come forward and help save Emanuel's life."

American correctional facilities were forced to look overseas for sodium thiopental after the country's sole manufacturer Hospira ran out of the raw materials to produce the drug. Executions across the country have been delayed because of the problem.

Hospira, which is on record as saying it does not approve of the use of its sodium thiopental in executions has now withdrawn from the manufacture of the drug permanently after its attempts to set up a factory in Italy met with resistance from the country’s parliament.

  ·