How One Man In Mumbai Has Shaken U.S. Capital Punishment Policy

The recently botched execution in Oklahoma has led to a delay in administering the death penalty there and in other states across the country. It is well-known that this was a result of a shortage of the usual toxic compound long used to inject inmates with a fatal dose of chemicals. The experimental mix created in it’s absence did not work as hoped resulting in the gruesome execution of convicted murderer Clayton Lockett.

What many do not know, however, is that one principled man in Mumbai is largely responsible for this shortage and the resulting rethinking of the death penalty across the country.

When Navneet Verma, CEO of Kayem Phamaceutical realized that the chemical compound he and his company were producing and sending to the United States was being used to kill prisoners, he was mortified.

“I was not aware the product was used for execution,” said Verma, chief executive officer of Kayem Pharmaceutical, a company that sources drugs from manufacturers and supplies them to domestic and foreign markets. “I just sold sodium thiopental to the United States government thinking they were going to use it for bonafide reasons.”

When made aware by ‘Reprieve, a group who advocates against the death penalty, Verma decided to back out of his critical role in the supply chain.

“These people [at Reprieve] told me that they were using it for capital punishment,” Verma said. “There was a chance that some innocent person might die. It is different in India; we don’t execute as many people, so there is less chance for mistakes. So I told the US officials that we do not believe in these sort of things. If this drug is misused, we will say goodbye.”

While the unsuccessful improvisation by Oklahoma officials to concoct a fatal injection is a cruel and unusual way to throw light on the topic, it has served to force the public to think again about America’s obsession with Capital Punishment. It not likely that this episode will end the practice any time soon but any reexamination is welcome, long overdue and primarily a result of the conscious and the actions of a solitary scientist halfway across the globe.

By: Mark Quincy Adams

A proud 'pragmatic progressive' Mark Quincy Adams has been a political
talk show host and prolific pontificator since 1992. Find him on Facebook and Twitter @politicalglutton