In the recent climate of stories like pharmas price-gouging, it's nice to hear they aren't always greedy. (Edit: They were somewhat coerced by Italy, where they produce it[2]. I think EU export law forbids it now too. Still, they could probably produce it in the US at a worthwhile premium if they wanted to, but it appears they don't.)
> Other death penalty states have turned to different drugs, but Nebraska had few options because the state’s protocol calls for sodium thiopental.
I don't know how that came about, but it makes me wonder if this would be an effective way to weaken a law you don't like: compromise on a legal implementation that depends on something that won't last forever. I guess it's not unique, though; it's like how the debt ceiling is only bumped up a bit, or PATRIOT Act provisions extended a couple of years at a time.
> Changing it to a more modern execution drug would have required public meetings, and that would take time that Ricketts and his DOC did not have.
It sounds like Gov. Ricketts' ego and legacy rest on maintaining the death penalty in his state. The Atlantic[0] covered how the state legislature abolished it, and the multiple ways the government sought to twist law to do it anyway. The governor and his father personally financed $300k on a petition drive to suspend the new law[1]. Must be nice to have so much money and nothing better to do than try to obtain the right to legally kill strangers.
[0] http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/a-govern... [1] http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/10/19/nebraska_d... [2] http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=175550&p=irol-ne...