Because in 2008 when the Supreme Court ruled on lethal injection they said, ARCHIVE, JUSTICE ROBERTS: The parties agree that the successful delivery of the first drug is necessary to, prevent the prisoner from experiencing severe pain. NINA PERRY: I see, OK, well thank you very much for your time. KAREN: If you’d put me in touch with somebody who’s actually been involved with the firing squad. I attended an execution in Florida of Bennie Demps. KAREN: So he goes to the state medical examiner a guy named Jay Chapman. MAYA FOA: and it was…I was in the UK so it was evening--, MAYA FOA: So we had just a number of hours. KAREN: So we left off with Maya in India and they’re wondering, why do you guys use drugs to kill people. KAREN: Which she still couldn’t figure out the identity of. MAYA FOA: And I remember you know I emailed that over… I think we had the time to enter an affidavit from me or from Clive. MAYA FOA: A legal organization that did death penalty cases. Release year: 2020 . And he actually eventually quits his job, becomes a pastor, and becomes a very strong anti-death penalty advocate…. KAREN: So he’s in the legislature and he’s feeling like he just sold his soul. You know, this is calling it for what it is. And it acknowledges itself for what it is. KAREN: There’s an execution in Arizona tonight. No pitcher has ever thrown more than one. NINA PERRY: OK. Are you still supplying the states with…. With that in mind, the team at More Perfect challenged ourselves to come up with a way to give these words the swagger they deserve. It’s the best competition on TV right now . KAREN: There’s a guy sitting at a desk... his name’s Mehdi Alavi. KAREN: If you walk in, and in the front it’s just this reception area, but in the back…. KAREN: But ultimately she does figure out that there were no UK companies authorized to ship this drug to the US. This is Justice Alito. Coming Soon: More Perfect May 24, 2016 From the producers of Radiolab, More Perfect dives into the rarefied world of the Supreme Court. CLIP, NEWS: But he moved. MAYA FOA: An existential crisis-- and I wrote to a couple of organizations and said please can I be useful to you? CLIP, NEWS: His final meal was a piece of steak. KAREN: And in this drug cocktail you can kind of see everything we need and want from the death penalty just kind of all mixed together. It’s three drugs…. What I think is happening is just that we’re paying more attention to lethal injection, right? She was doing some theater things, but she was like having this quarter life crisis, and didn’t know what to do with her life. KAREN: I’ll buy you a beer next time I see you. KAREN: And very quickly, she learns that the same company that is sending drugs to Arizona had sent these drugs to lots of different states. NINA PERRY: Oh right, so then it became illegal... NINA PERRY: Oh. On this episode, the case that pushed one Supreme Court justice to a nervous breakdown, brought a boiling feud to a head, and changed the course of the Supreme Court forever. KAREN: Which he lives to regret, he thinks that he actually extended the life of the death penalty. And he’s like I don’t want the family business, and he wanders for years. KAREN: In other words what he’s saying is it’s time to talk about not just like the mechanics of what we’re doing, but whether we should even do it at all. Missouri says, we’re gonna find the drug in Germany. KAREN: Paul Ray says he was just trying to solve a problem. JAD: So what is the answer to that question? MAYA FOA: We had figured out it had come originally from-- there were some active ingredients made in Austria, some of those were sent over to Germany, they were packaged, put into vials-- those were sent over to the UK. JAD: Did they have reason to believe that they weren’t FDA approved? KAREN: And then there’s five men with rifles. KAREN: I really want to talk to a volunteer member of the firing squad. MEHDI ALAVI: It’s irrelevant to your case. The complete first season of “Tehran" is now streaming alongside an expanding slate of Apple Originals from all over the world, including “Losing Alice,” a neo-noir psychological thriller from creator, writer and director Sigal Avin, that will debut its fourth episode this Friday. And now you want to come before the Court and say, well, this third drug is not a hundred percent sure. JAD: So the states were just out of luck? He drinks a lot of corn liquor. This is not the time of Moses. WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Julie and the Phantoms season 1. KAREN: No. The complete preamble reads: We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do … MEHDI ALAVI: It wasn’t illegal at that point. CLIP, SCOTT THOMPSON, KOTV: Bill Wiseman was a rising star back then, he loved politics. Uh, you know we have a set amount, and then we're out. So I was in a real dilemma. This season, we decided not just to make some podcasts-- we decided to put together an album of songs inspired by the amendments to the U.S. Constitution. PAUL RAY: The European drug companies no longer selling the drug cocktail. CLIP, NEWS: What caught my attention that it was so sudden, so quick. KAREN: Exactly. And this invoice has a name on it. KAREN: And just like that, the supply of this drug is turned off. They put a hood over their head. KAREN: The justices called you guys out, kind of. They’ve been working on the death penalty for like years at that point to try to abolish it. Because now any states that want to keep doing it, they essentially have to go underground to do get those drugs. So he rings up some anesthesiologists and doctors, and says I want to find a better way to do this, and they say we can’t help you, because you know the Hippocratic oath, do no harm. JAD: Uhhhh….alright, we’re starting with Maya, right? KAREN: So this is how Utah has chosen to solve the whack-a-mole problem. And what do you, what do you sell now? This is, from every company I’ve spoken to in India, they say but ‘Why? Except that it doesn’t look like a pharmacy, because it’s got a big sign on the front that says, Elgon Driving Academy. The perfect game thrown by Don Larsen in game 5 of the 1956 World Series is the only postseason perfect game in major league history and one of only two postseason no-hitters. NINA PERRY: Well I’m just quite interested, as a citizen of London. CLIP, NEWS: Barbaric. JAD: Oh you mean it’s like botched executions have been happening forever and we’re just now noticing them. I gave this episode a listen the 2nd time. I know there was a lot of prayerful times around the house and those men were over getting ready. KAREN: And as a result what you’ve seen is that as a result things have gotten very DIY. MAYA FOA: Does anyone in the office have some time, a volunteer have some time to figure out where those drugs could've come from? CLIP, NEWS: They’re changing and trying new procedures never used before in the history of execution. It’s called the torture regulation. CLIP, STEPHEN BREYER: The time has come for the court to again consider a more basic question: whether the death penalty itself is Constitutional. MAYA FOA: Yeah, sure, I’ve got half an hour… ya I didn’t know what I was starting when I started it. KAREN: Well the answer to that goes back to a guy named Bill Wiseman. KAREN: Things got very tense. More than 30 million people typically visit Maine each year. CLIP: Clenching his teeth, and in a couple moments he actually mumbled. I … Did you-- were you aware of that? CLIP, NEWS: Landrigan is running out of time and options. MAYA FOA: I remember my first call with them, KAREN: She was like, um, did you know your drug is being used in executions? And in 1976 the Supreme Court says, alright. MEHDI ALAVI: I’ve got no further comments, my dear. I think that, you know, you might need a little guidance, and you might need a little understanding, and something bigger than you is out there.