KANSAS CITY, Mo. - It's no secret that pentobarbital, Missouri's new execution drug, is an effective killer.
Veterinarians use it to euthanize cats and dogs every day, and it has been employed as the sole drug in 30 U.S. executions this year.
What is secret is the name of the compounding pharmacy that will supply pentobarbital as Missouri's lethal injection agent.
That secrecy, along with a growing concern about the unregulated nature of such pharmacies, could propel the state into a protracted legal fight before it can carry out its first execution since early 2011.
A similar situation in Georgia over the summer prompted a stay of execution after a judge found that putting an inmate to death with secretly compounded pentobarbital raised crucial constitutional questions.
"There are a lot of serious problems with all of this," said Deborah Denno, a law professor atFordham University in New York who has done extensive research on issues surrounding lethal injection across the country.
In an article for the Georgetown Law Journal, Denno said that the "historically dismal safety standards and haphazard daily practices" of some compounding pharmacies "all but invite lethal injection challenges."
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