Anesthetic shortage delays ax murderer’s execution
Convicted ax murderer Robert W. Jackson III’s life has been spared for now. Jackson will remain in prison in Delaware because an anesthetic shortage has delayed his execution.
As Dillon Buckley reports for WHYY, Delaware plans to use the barbiturate pentobarbital in its executions now that sodium thiopental, the drug previously used to execute prisoners, is in short supply. The sole American supplier of sodium thiopental says it will stop making the drug, forcing most states to make the switch to pentobarbital.
Jackson’s execution is delayed until the drug supply issued is sorted out.
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