DOJ: FDA can't regulate lethal injection drugs

The Department of Justice informed the Food and Drug Administration it has no jurisdiction over the lethal drugs that are used in executions.

“Your office has asked us whether FDA has authority to regulate articles used in historically accepted methods of execution. Some of those articles — like electric chairs and gas chambers — exist for the sole purpose of effectuating capital punishment. Others — like substances used in lethal-injection protocols and firearms used by firing squads — have other intended uses,” the DOJ wrote in an opinion released earlier this month. “FDA has not historically exercised jurisdiction over articles intended to carry out a lawful sentence of capital punishment.”