State finds anonymous drug supplier for next week’s execution

Court documents filed on behalf of Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster show that the state has found a new supplier of its execution drug, less than a week before convicted killer Michael Taylor is scheduled to be put to death.

A Tulsa, Okla.-based compounding pharmacy reached a settlement Monday in a suit filed by Taylor and agreed that it won’t provide pentobarbital for the execution scheduled for Wednesday.

Koster’s office said in a Wednesday filing with U.S. District Court in Kansas City that Missouri has arranged for a different pharmacy to provide pentobarbital. That pharmacy is not named.

Attorneys for Taylor responded in a filing on Thursday that it would violate Taylor’s constitutional rights to execute him without an opportunity to check the background of the new pharmacy.