FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 10, 2025
Contact: Nico MacDonald, 718-210-8432, press@worthrises.org
Hartford, CT — Today, Connecticut lawmakers heard testimony on SB 430, which would prevent corporations doing business in the state from manufacturing and selling drugs and medical devices for the purpose of death penalty executions. The bill was introduced by State Senators Saud Anwar and Ceci Maher and State Representative Josh Elliott after recent reporting revealed that several Connecticut-based corporations were facilitating the death penalty in other jurisdictions around the country. Connecticut abolished the death penalty in 2012. Watch the press conference.
“The people of Connecticut decided long ago that we would not stand for the death penalty. It is unacceptable that a company in our state would violate the wishes of its neighbors and help carry out executions for other jurisdictions,” said Representative Josh Elliott (D-88). “This bill follows in the spirit of our previous work by ensuring that our state’s values are upheld consistently.”
In 2024, a feature by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver revealed that Hamden-based Absolute Standards was the source of lethal injection drugs used in 13 federal executions under the Trump administration in 2020 and 2021. It has also been confirmed that Absolute Standards has also sold drugs to states with the death penalty like Arizona. While the corporation has since committed to no longer supplying lethal injection drugs, what it previously sold remains on federal and state shelves. Those drugs are now likely expired, but there are concerns they may still be used.
“It has been more than a dozen years since Connecticut abolished the death penalty, sending a clear moral message and imperative to our state, its residents and its businesses,” said Senator Saud Anwar (D-03). “Ensuring devices and drugs made in our state does not just ensure this standard is upheld, but prevents serious potential legal trouble risked by companies supplying such materials. This bill ensures our state walks the walk in the name of human rights, ethical judgment and, indeed, in protecting the livelihoods of state businesses.”
Also in 2024, Windsor-based Walter Surface Technologies was exposed for its connection to death penalty executions. Its subsidiary, Allegro Technologies, manufactured the gas masks being used by Alabama to carry out executions through nitrogen suffocation. Four people have been executed using this method pioneered by the state.
“Connecticut has long rejected the death penalty, recognizing it as a deeply flawed, inhumane practice that has no place in a just society,” said Senator Ceci Maher (D-26). “It is unacceptable that a Connecticut-based company has been complicit in supplying lethal injection drugs. With SB 430, we are taking a firm stand to ensure that no business operating in our state profits from state-sanctioned killing."
In today’s hearing, lawmakers, human rights advocates, and families of those on death row and their victims advocated for the passage of SB 430, arguing that the legislation is essential to uphold Connecticut’s strong opposition to the death penalty by preventing corporations in the state from enabling executions at the federal level or in other states. Notably, the bill’s consideration comes just weeks after President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the U.S. Attorney General to pursue capital punishment in more cases.
Lisa Brown, whose son Christopher Vialva was executed by the first Trump Administration in September 2020, said, “My son was murdered by the federal government in 2020. It was the hardest day of my life. My son was deeply remorseful for the crime he committed, but it wasn’t enough. I watched him gasp his last breath as the drugs from Absolute Standards were pumped into his arm. I can only hope that no other family must suffer like ours has. SB 430 gives me that hope.”
Connecticut abolished the death penalty in 2012, recognizing its deep racial and economic injustice, high costs, and failure to deter crime. However, despite the state’s formal rejection of capital punishment, local corporations have continued to profit from executions elsewhere. This discovery exposed a major loophole in the state’s legal framework that SB 430 seeks to close. The bill would allow the state to deny or revoke a business license to any corporation that knowingly manufactures, tests, or sells drugs or medical devices for the death penalty. As such, advocates affirmed the legislation fell within state rights.
Bianca Tylek, Executive Director of Worth Rises, emphasized the bill’s national implications and said, “It’s hard to explain how we got here — that there are people willing to profit from executions. But this moment necessitates a recommitment to our values and the courage to stand behind it with real, tangible action. SB 430 would ensure that Connecticut will never be mentioned again in relation to the death penalty, as had been hoped 12 years ago when it was abolished. This will finish the job and ensure that Connecticut can separate itself from the inhumanity of the death penalty for good.”
SB 430 reflects a longstanding industry position among pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors. All of the FDA-approved suppliers of drugs sought for use in lethal injection, have publicly opposed the use of their drugs in executions and implemented distribution controls to protect their drugs from being sold for this purpose. The American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, the American Pharmacists Association, and the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding, among other professional associations, have all also come out against the misuse of healthcare products and medical personnel in executions. And beyond the healthcare industry, major chemical corporations have also banned the use of their nitrogen gas in executions.
"The death penalty is a failed policy that has no place in a just society, and companies that profit from executions are complicit in a system that devalues human life,” said Abraham Bonowitz, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Death Penalty Action. “Connecticut made the right decision to abolish the death penalty, and now it must ensure that no business within its borders supplies the tools of execution. This bill is a necessary step to align Connecticut’s business practices with its values and to help cut off the supply chain that enables state-sanctioned killings."
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Worth Rises is a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to dismantling the prison industry and ending the exploitation of those it targets.
Death Penalty Action (DPA) works to stop executions and abolish the death penalty, to advocacy, education, and action. DPA provides high-visibility resources, leadership, support, educational, and direct action events and activities within the broader anti-death penalty movement.