Authorities in South Carolina can't execute death row inmate because nobody will sell them the lethal injection drugs

A death row inmate due to be executed on December 1 cannot be killed – because authorities have run out of the right lethal drugs.

Bobby Wayne Stone, 52, was due to be put to death for killing police officer Sergeant Charlie Kubala a decade ago.

But South Carolina cannot carry out its first execution in six years because state authorities can’t buy the cocktail of drugs for the lethal injection, it has been reported.

The state needs three drugs: pentobarbital, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride, but reportedly cannot source them because manufacturers are won’t supply them for executions.

The situation has been blamed on the lack of a ‘shield law’ that would allow the manufacturers who sell the drugs to remain secret.

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“They are afraid that their names will be made known and they don’t want to have anything to do with it, for fear of retribution or exposure of themselves, their families, their businesses… all perfectly good reasons,” South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster is reported to have said.

“So here we are at a dead stop and we can’t do anything about it unless and until our legislature enacts the shield law.”

Death row inmates in South Carolina have a choice of the electric chair or lethal injection but Stone has reportedly chosen lethal injection.

Authorities are now urging the general assembly to quickly pass a shield law so executions can be carried out.

States in a similar position have switched to a lethal injection that involves just one drug or tried to find new cocktails.