On April 5, 2024, reporting from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver revealed Connecticut-based chemical manufacturer Absolute Standards to be the secretive supplier of lethal injection drugs. It supplied the drugs that enabled the Trump administration’s killing spree of 13 people after a 17-year hiatus on federal executions.

In recent years, virtually the entire pharmaceutical industry stopped supplying lethal injection drugs, forcing the federal government and states committed to state-sanctioned murder to delay executions or even institute moratoriums on the death penalty. Absolute Standards undermined the pharmaceutical industry’s ban by supplying unregulated drugs for capital punishment. 

However, thanks to the thousands of people who responded to our call to action and sent emails to the executives at Absolute Standards, in June 2024, the corporation confirmed that it stopped the manufacture and sale of lethal injection drugs and will no longer supply them going forward. This is their first public commitment, and we will make sure to hold them accountable.

Still, the drugs that Absolute Standards sold years back are still out there, and more action is needed. Recently, we learned that Absolute Standards sold lethal injection drugs to Arizona for the purpose of the death penalty. At the time of sale, a corporate representative noted that the drugs have a shelf life of two and half years. Accordingly, the drugs have now expired and must not be used for executions.

Demand that Absolute Standards tell Arizona to discard the expired drugs—it is the least they can do after the gross harm they have caused.