All federal executions are carried out in Terre Haute.
(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
A Connecticut chemical supply company is stopping production of a main ingredient for an anti-seizure medication used in federal executions.
In a letter sent last month to Connecticut lawmakers and later obtained by WFIU/WTIU News, the president of Absolute Standards, Inc. responded for the first time amid a weeks-long campaign to put pressure on the company.
“We have no intention to resume any production or sale of pentobarbital,” John Criscio wrote to the lawmakers, who’d asked to meet with company officials. “We hope this letter provides some clarity for you and others.”
The lawmakers, state Sen. Saud Anwar and Rep. Joshua Elliott, both Democrats, oppose capital punishment and plan to introduce legislation barring Connecticut companies from making or selling chemicals intended for use in executions outside the state.
Criscio responded that he had to “respectfully decline” the meeting but assured the legislators his company stopped making the execution drug years ago: “In December 2020, we ceased any manufacture or sale of pentobarbital.”
That month, the Trump administration carried out two federal executions; it executed threemoreprisoners in January 2021. Those five were among 13 people executed in Indiana during the final six months of the administration.
The 13 executions took place at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, where all federal executions are carried out. U.S. officials conducted each execution by administering a massive overdose of pentobarbital.
While Anwar says he appreciates the assurances, he’s still planning to move forward with a bill to ban Connecticut companies from aiding executions.
He says the legislation will reflect the views of the people of Connecticut, which abolished capital punishment at the state level more than a decade ago.
"We have decided where we stand, and we are comfortable with where we stand,” Anwar said Friday. “A company based out of our state to be able to create medicines to kill humans … goes against the essence of what we believe in, collectively.”
The letter Anwar received doesn’t go into detail about how much pentobarbital the company produced or why it stopped in December 2020. But late 2020 was among the busiest periods for federal executions in the history of U.S. death row.
During the December 2020 execution of Alfred Bourgeois, witnesses were alarmed by the way his torso appeared to jerk and contract as soon as the pentobarbital began to flow. An autopsy of another prisoner, Corey Johnson, who was executed weeks later, indicated severe pulmonary edema, meaning his lungs filled with fluid before he died. The reaction was so severe that lung tissue traveled all the way into his mouth. Before losing consciousness, Johnson told a spiritual advisor he felt a burning sensation.
During litigation leading up to the executions, attorneys for the condemned prisoners requested basic information about the drugs including their origins, expiration dates, and other quality-control information. But federal officials refused to disclose where they acquired the drugs. In sealed depositions, previously obtained by WFIU/WTIU News, an official representing the U.S. justice department cited concerns about how such disclosures might imperil the government’s ability to access drugs in the future.
While Criscio’s letter doesn’t explicitly state his company supplied the drugs for the federal executions, he cited a Trump-era council letter declaring that the Drug Enforcement Agency could not regulate controlled substances used in executions.
“Although some reports have given the impression that we acted illegally or even purposefully subverted the law, nothing could be further from the truth,” he wrote. “We hope to alleviate your concerns, at least with respect to Absolute Standards.”
Death penalty experts dispute Criscio’s assertion, and the letter is among several changes by the Trump administration to speed up the process. Before Trump took office, no one had been executed in Terre Haute for nearly 20 years.
“In a sense, it's your classic non-denial denial,” according to Robert Dunham, an attorney and expert on capital punishment.
“They first defend selling pentobarbital to the federal government, and to states, by saying that the Trump advisory letter made it clear that there was nothing illegal in doing that. But then they don't go so far as to say, ‘but we actually did it.’”
Dunham added: “I don't think you have to really read between the lines. They don’t want to admit that they sold pentobarbital knowing it was going to be used for executions. But it's clear that they sold pentobarbital knowing it was going to be used for executions.”
The Connecticut attorney general's office is also looking into allegations about the company's role in executions, according to a spokesperson.
Regardless, opponents of the death penalty say they’re taking the win.
Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, says he’s cautiously satisfied with the language in the letter.
"Would it be nice if it said, ‘We will no longer ever produce drugs for use in executions?’ That would be more specific. But I think this is sufficient,” he says.
Moreover, Bonowitz believes the letter reflects the company’s desperation to shift the spotlight from its role in the federal executions.
“They certainly are on notice. This is the last thing that they want Absolute Standards to be known for,” he says.
Death Penalty Action, along with the progressive group Worth Rises, organized a joint campaign against the company starting in April. It resulted in thousands of messages from opponents of capital punishment all around the world.
Bonowitz says they launched the campaign after John Oliver, the host of “Last Week Tonight,” announced that one of his researchers discovered the identity of the company supplying the federal government with pentobarbital.
Oliver cited Freedom of Information Act requests and files discovered by producer Chris McDaniel, a former public radio reporter. He said that a confidential informant confirmed that Absolute Standards made the drugs.
Bonowitz says Death Penalty Action and Worth Rises launched the campaign the next morning, taking advantage of the momentum.
In his letter to the Connecticut lawmakers, Criscio complained that his employees were overwhelmed by the response.
“As one could expect, we have been inundated with vulgar, and sometimes threatening, attacks by telephone, letter, email, and social media,” Criscio wrote.
