US hospital ‘tricked’ into selling drugs for executions
Hydromorphone, seen here in pill form, is a drug used in US executions. (Getty) Getty
An American hospital has claimed it was tricked into supplying drugs for prison executions under the belief it was supplying them for medicinal purposes.
Lake Charles Memorial Hospital has said it sold a quantity the drug hydromorphone to the Lousiana Department of Corrections, according to US media.
The purchase took place a week before the execution of 70-year-old Christopher Sepulvado.
The hospital has claimed that they sold the drug, a morphine derivative, under the assumption that it would be used for medical purposes.
However, the state has been using a "two-drug cocktail" of hydromorphone and midazolam for several years.
It has been used in some recent executions which have taken up to two hours, in the case of prisoner Joseph Wood.
Documents relating to the sale reportedly indicate the hospital was told their hydromorphone would be sent to a prison medical unit.
"At no time did Memorial believe or was led to believe that the drug would be used for an execution," a hospital spokesman told US channel KPLC TV.
The Louisiana Department of Corrections has so far refused to respond to requests for comment.
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