The Missouri attorney general said on Thursday at the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis that the state should produce its own lethal drugs for executions.
State Attorney General Chris Koster said that by essentially making the drugs in house, Missouri wouldn't have to deal with questions about where the drugs came from or who made them, reports Reuters. There has been intense secrecy over how states obtained the lethal drugs.
Koster said, "As a matter of policy, Missouri should not be reliant on merchants whose identities must be shielded from public view or who can exercise unacceptable leverage over this profound state act."
The comments from Missouri's top prosecutor come as states all across the United States are scrambling to deal with shortages of lethal injection drugs as well as a couple recent executions did not proceed smoothly.
A federal judge even ordered on Tuesday that all executions in Ohio to be temporarily halted for a couple months while legal arguments filed by lawyers representing death row inmates are heard over the state's announcement that dosages of both lethal drugs would be increased following the botched execution of Dennis McGuire.
He took 26 minutes to die after the drugs were administered and there have been conflicting reports about his final half-hour of life. The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction claim that he didn't suffer, while witnesses claim otherwise.