US federal judge blocks import of execution drug

US District Judge Richard Leon has blocked the importation of sodium thiopental, a drug used in executions, on the grounds that the Food and Drug Administration bypassed the law in order to allow it into the country. He sided with the lawyers of death row inmates, who had been arguing that the US should ban the import of an unapproved drug manufactured abroad. The judge’s decision contravenes the Obama administration's argument that it has the right to approve the importation of unapproved drugs. The American manufacturer of sodium thiopental announced last year that it would cease its production, putting a number of executions on hold. Sodium thiopental is not a lethal drug itself, but is used to put the inmate to sleep before the lethal drugs are administered.