US supreme court overturns order imposed when state refused to name UK supplier of a drug used in lethal injection

Arizona executed a man last night after the US supreme court lifted a stay granted when the state refused to reveal how it obtained one of the drugs used in the death chamber from a British manufacturer.

Jeffrey Landrigan, who was convicted of the murder of Chester Dean Dyer in 1989, was pronounced dead at 10:26pm local time.

A federal judge put his execution on hold on Monday after defence lawyers argued that the state's failure to reveal its supplier meant the drug might not meet US standards and that could amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

But the ruling was overturned by the supreme court, and Landrigan was put death by lethal injection in Arizona's first execution since 2007.

The state's attorney general, Terry Goddard, used a little known law preventing the identification of executioners – and others with "ancillary" functions – to defy a court order requiring the state to reveal the exact source of an anaesthetic, sodium thiopental, used in the execution.

Yesterday, Goddard's office confirmed to the Guardian that the drug was obtained from a manufacturer in Britain because of a shortage in the US but declined to name the company concerned. Sodium thiopental is used to render prisoners unconscious before they are killed with other drugs. It has been in short supply in the US for months, forcing at least two states to look for alternative sources of supply.

Kent Cattani, Arizona's assistant attorney general, acknowledged at a court hearing last week that the state had not got the drug from the only approved US supplier, Illinois-based Hospira.

It is possible that the UK supplier was unaware that the drug was intended for use in executions as several US states have sourced it from abroad for use in hospitals.

Hospira has said that it does not approve of the use of the anaesthetic in executions. "[The drug] isn't indicated for capital punishment, and Hospira does not support its use in this procedure," it said. "Hospira has communicated with departments of corrections in the United States to advise them of this position."

The company says that the shortage of supply has been caused by "a supply issue with the active pharmaceutical ingredient, which is supplied by a third party". It says it expects normal supplies to be resumed early next year.

Landrigan was sentenced to death for strangling and stabbing Dyer in 1989 during a robbery weeks after escaping from an Oklahoma prison where he was jailed for another murder. But his death sentence has come under increasing scrutiny.

Last week, Cheryl Hendrix, the judge who condemned Landrigan, told a clemency board that she would have given him a lesser sentence had she been aware of the brain damage caused by his mother's heavy drinking while pregnant and his turbulent childhood.

"The death penalty in this case is not appropriate and never has been," she said.

The clemency board split on whether to recommend to Arizona's governor, Jan Brewer, that she reduce Landrigan's sentence to life without parole.

Landrigan's father died of natural causes while awaiting execution for murder in Arkansas five years ago.