La. attorney general ramps up push for restart of executions

By MELINDA DESLATTE , Associated Press

Eds: APNewsNow. Will be updated.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Landry is offering ways he says the corrections department could carry out death sentences in Louisiana, continuing his clash with Gov. John Bel Edwards over capital punishment.

Landry sent a letter Tuesday to Edwards suggesting a switch in the drug used for lethal injection or use of the Louisiana State Penitentiary's pharmacy to make the drug, a process known as compounding.

The Democratic Edwards' administration says the Republican attorney general's suggestions for "policy changes" are unworkable.

Natalie LaBorde, corrections deputy assistant secretary, says drug companies refuse to sell their products for executions. She says private pharmacists don't want to sell ingredients to make into a lethal injection drug through a compounding pharmacy because their identities could be publicly disclosed.

Louisiana's last execution was in 2010.

Categories: AP News, State News