Connecticut death penalty opponents want lawmakers to bar corporations in the state from making drugs or devices used in executions.
The state abolished the death penalty in 2012.
The move is in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order expanding the death penalty.
There's widespread industry support to stop distributing drugs and medical devices used for executions, Bianca Tylek, the executive director of the anti-death penalty group Worth Rises, told lawmakers in the General Law Committee on Monday.
“This has industry support because there is no legitimate market to kill people, “ Tylek said.
“And importantly, the legislation would not, and is not intended to impact the legitimate uses of drugs and medical devices that are not to kill people.”
The Hamden-based Absolute Standards company supplied lethal injection drugs used in 13 federal executions during the first Trump administration. It said it no longer produces those materials.
Windsor-based Walter Surface Technologies owns a South Carolina-based manufacturer of a respiratory mask used in four gas suffocation executions in Alabama. The most recent was on Feb. 6, 2025.
