The Supreme Court on Tuesday night split along conservative-liberal lines, with Justice Anthony Kennedy joining the conservatives, to allow the Arizona execution of Jeffrey Landrigan to proceed in spite of lower court concerns about the safety of the drugs being used for the lethal injection. After he uttered his last words “Boomer Sooner” — a University of Oklahoma fan slogan — Landrigan was executed at 12:26 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday, according to this CNN account.
The eleventh-hour court dispute stemmed in part from the shortage of sodium thiopental, an ingredient in the “cocktail” of drugs typically used in lethal injections in the United States. The sole U.S. manufacturer has stopped production, but Arizona obtained the drug from a foreign source. The state resisted requests for details about the sourcing by attorneys for Landrigan, citing a state law that protects the privacy of individuals and entities involved in executions.
