3.1 LETHAL INJECTION EXECUTIONS In contrast, other goods that were not produced in the first instance to carry out executions have subsequently been misused for this purpose, the most notable example being the application of certain pharmaceutical chemicals as part of lethal injection executions. Currently, in at least five countries – China, Guatemala, Thailand, Vietnam and the USA – the intravenous administration of a lethal dose of certain pharmaceutical chemicals (“lethal injection”) is a legal method of execution.38 In all countries for which lethal injection protocols are known, a sedative or anaesthetic agent (normally a short-acting barbiturate) is administered either as the sole element of, or as a component of the lethal injection. The dual-use chemicals misused for lethal injection executions are normally employed for a wide range of (often lifesaving) medical, as well as veterinary and other legitimate purposes, and their trade is global in nature. THE BATTLE AGAINST LETHAL INJECTION In the USA, several executions set in recent years have been delayed, in part as a result of legal challenges linked to the revision of lethal injection protocols, or of problems faced by state authorities in obtaining substances used in lethal injection procedures. In 2019 executions were completely or in part on hold in Arizona, California, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina because of litigation on these states’ lethal injection procedures. On 25 July 2019, US Attorney General William Barr directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to adopt a new lethal injection protocol and to schedule the first federal executions after a nearly two-decade hiatus, but this move was initially blocked in the courts.39 Following the exhaustion of legal challenges, the first execution was carried out on 14 July 2020.40 Outside the USA, Thailand executed a 26-year-old man by lethal injection for aggravated murder on 18 June 2018, in the country’s first execution since August 2009.41 Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation oppose the death penalty in all cases, regardless of the method used to carry out executions, and call for its global abolition. Proponents of the death penalty have promoted lethal injections as pain-free and humane, when in fact there is potential for this method to cause intense, sometimes prolonged physical suffering – on top of the terrible mental suffering endured in the build-up to an execution. In certain countries, acquisition of anaesthetic agents from domestic sources for lethal injection executions has proven difficult, in large part because of national and international due diligence measures introduced by pharmaceutical manufacturers to ensure their products are not misused for such purposes (see following chapter). Consequently, a number of US states have attempted to source stocks of such chemicals held in other countries. This has led certain states and regional organizations, (notably the EU) to adopt or (in the case of the Council of Europe) to undertake the process of adopting trade control measures to prevent transfers of these chemicals for such purposes. 38 See Amnesty International, Execution by lethal injection: a quarter century of state poisoning, (Index: ACT 50/007/2007); Amnesty International, Maldives to resume executions after over 60 years, Urgent Action, (Index: ASA 29/6764/2017), www.amnesty.org/ download/Documents/ASA2967642017ENGLISH.pdf; Amnesty International, Further information: Papua New Guinea plans for executions, Urgent Action, (Index: ASA 34/003/2013), www.amnesty.org/es/documents/asa34/003/2013/en/ Taiwan also lists lethal injection as a legal method of execution, though execution by gunshot is the default method and no lethal-injection executions have been carried out in Taiwan to date. However, the regulations on executions as most recently amended in 2020 also foresee the administration of a sedative before an execution by shooting is carried out. See Ministry of Justice of the Republic of China, Decree No. 10904514050, Amendments to the “Execution of Death Penalty Rules”, 15 July 2020. The death penalty in Guatemala has been abolished for ordinary crimes. See Amnesty International, Guatemala: Court decision ruling death penalty unconstitutional for most crimes is a key step on path to full abolition (Public Statement, 7 November 2017), https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ act50/7412/2017/en/)/ 39 Amnesty International, Death sentences and executions 2019, (Index: ACT 50/1847/2020), p.19 40 Amnesty International, USA: Senseless pursuit of US federal executions calls for review of proceedings and immediate halt to use of death penalty (Public Statement, 21 August 2020), https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ACT5029222020ENGLISH.pdf 41 Amnesty International, Thailand: Country’s first execution since 2009 a deplorable move, (Press Release, 19 June 2018), www. amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/06/thailand-countrys-first-execution-since-2009-a-deplorable-move/ ENDING THE TORTURE TRADE THE PATH TO GLOBAL CONTROLS ON THE ‘TOOLS OF TORTURE’ Amnesty International | Omega Research Foundation 21