The Daily - Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Eight men. Ten days. An extraordinary plan to rush a series of executions on Arkansas’ death row. Guest: Alan Blinder, the New York Times reporter who is tracking the case. For more information on today’s episode, visit http://nyti.ms/2mwxoym.

Duration: 21m
Broadcast on: 15 Mar 2017
Audio Format: other

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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This podcast is supported by the Capital One Venture X Card. Venture X offers the premium benefits you expect, like a $300 annual Capital One travel credit for less than you expect. Elevate your earn with unlimited double miles on every purchase, bringing you one step closer to your next dream destination. Plus, enjoy access to over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. The Capital One Venture X Card, what's in your wallet? Terms apply, lounge access is subject to change. See CapitalONE.com for details. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, an extraordinary plan to rush a series of executions on Arkansas's death row, the story of a controversial drug at the heart of the plan, and a race against the clock, eight men, ten days. It's Wednesday, March 15th. ♪♪ Near Grady, Arkansas, along the Arkansas River, sits the Varnery Unit. The high security prison is where the state keeps its inmates who are waiting to die. So you've got eight men in Arkansas who have been on death row in some cases for decades. Alan Blinder is a reporter for the Times based in the South. These are men who were convicted of some of the most heinous crimes that a state can ever see. And now, after years of waiting, these eight men are scheduled to die. It is a pace of execution that researchers say is unprecedented in the modern history of the death penalty in the United States. All eight over ten days. Among them, there was a man named Don Davis, who actually this month marked the 25th anniversary of being sentenced to death. My name is Deborah Sallings, and I'm the lawyer for Don Davis. What's his state of mind right now? Well, in general, like everybody there, and I've seen some of the other people as well. I mean, everything is very tense and very, everything is real subdued. Even with the guards, you can tell that it's a big moment and everybody is apprehensive and worried. You know, these people have been on death row for a long time. And I don't really understand why we're in such a rush that we're going to do this assembly line execution just because of an expiration date on a drug.

It all comes down to a drug called medazalam. How to give your child medazalam? So medazalam is one of the most popular drugs that you will find in any hospital setting. It is very popular sedative. It is sprayed into the nose using a syringe and atomizer. But medazalam is also an execution drug. It is used in lethal injection cocktails, and the state of Arkansas's supply of medazalam is scheduled to expire at the end of April. What do you mean expire? Every drug you will find out there has an expiration date. Effective nighttime cold and flu symptom relief in just one dose. Whether it's the NyQuil that you keep in your medicine cabinet, or in this case, medazalam, it will reach the end of its shelf life, if you will. And it is illegal, essentially, to administer it in this kind of context once the drug is expired. And Arkansas is not certain whether they'll be able to obtain any morbidazalam. Why? The trouble for Arkansas is pharmaceutical companies are broadly opposed to their drugs

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