For lack of a better phrase, the noose continues to tighten around lethal injection in the United States. With sodium thiopental already so difficult to come by that states are turning to drug brokers in other countries to provide them with an ill-gotten supply, now we learn from Brian Evans at Amnesty International USA’s blog that doctors are taking aim at the second in the traditional lethal three-drug cocktail:

Twenty-four doctors have now published an open letter in the medical journal The Lancet, calling on Hospira to prevent its drug from being used in executions. Pancuronium bromide of course has legitimate medical uses, and so far Hospira has resisted restricting access to the drug for fear of “jeopardizing the health of patients.”

It won’t be long, I think, before it becomes just as difficult to find pancuronium bromide as it is sodium thiopental. But will states finally be forced to give up their executions then? Likely they’ll rush to find some new drug to do the trick. Or maybe they’ll just bring back the firing squad and be honest about what they’re doing — killing people.