Did Political Pressure Push Oklahoma’s Supreme Court to Lift a Stay of Execution?

Steven Hsieh on April 24, 2014 - 5:12 PM ET

Amid mounting political pressure from lawmakers and state executives, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that two death row inmates are not entitled to know the source of lethal injection drugs that will be used to execute them.
In a ruling, the state’s high court also lifted a stay of execution for Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner that it had issued just two days prior. The two men are scheduled to die by lethal injection on April 29.
State supreme courts typically take weeks or months to rule on constitutional challenges. Yesterday’s decision took a little over forty-eight hours. The timing of the opinion has raised suspicions that the court was motivated by political pressures.
continue to read here

New warnings issued by federal drug regulators suggest that side effects of epidural corticosteroid injections may cause severe injury or even death.

By: Irvin Jackson | Published: April 24th, 2014

New warnings issued by federal drug regulators suggest that side effects of epidural corticosteroid injections may cause severe injury or even death.  
On April 23, the FDA issued a drug safety communication, alerting the medical community and patients about the risk of rare, but serious, neurological problems that can occur after receiving injections of corticosteroids into the epidural space of the spine. The agency says it will require new label warnings for all such injections.
The FDA began reviewing the safety of the injections after medical professionals raised concerns, reporting serious events that have included death, spinal cord infarction, full and partial paralysis, blindness, strokes, seizures, nerve injuries and brain edema.
The agency says that while many patients recovered within minutes to 48 hours after the injections, many patients have never recovered from the epidural steroid injection problems.
Epidural corticosteroid injections are used in the pain management industry to treat neck and back pain, but the FDA has never approved them for that purpose. The agency also warns that they are not proven safe or effective in treating pain.
- See more at: http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/epidural-corticosteroid-injection-warning-63895/#sthash.B2gcPWl3.dpuf