SWITCHING LETHAL INJECTION DRUG A ‘RED HERRING,’ SAYS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA

Contact: Wende Gozan Brown at 212-633-4247, [email protected].

(Washington, D.C.) – Upon Georgia’s announcement that it had replaced its supply of sodium thiopental with pentobarbital, Laura Moye, director of Amnesty International USA’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, released the following statement:

“It is a red herring to tinker with the machinery of death when the entire system is broken. Whether the state uses chemicals, bullets or electricity, the death penalty is inherently cruel and inhuman, and is part of an error-prone system that has sent far too many innocent people to death row. Replacing the supply of sodium thiopental amounts to nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

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