Georgia and four other states bought sodium thiopental over the summer from a U.K. supplier before the British Secretary of State’s office ordered exports of it cease. The drug is nearly impossible to find and is used as part of a three drug cocktail to perform executions.
Atlanta British Consul General Annabelle Malins sent the letter after she found out the drug was purchased in England, Vice Counsel Amanda Trice.
“Her Majesty’s Consul General wrote a letter to the judge involved in the case outlining the government’s opposition to the death penalty and expressing concerns that the death penalty may be carried out using the drug sodium thiopental as part of the execution process.”
Convicted murderer Emmanuel Hammond was sentenced to death for the 1988 murder of Atlanta resident Julie Love. He is set to die tonight at 7:00 at the Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.
