The StandDown Texas Project

Arkansas Lethal Injection Drug Information

AP posts, "Arkansas inmates seek clarification in death penalty FOIA case."  It's via KTHV-TV.

Six death row inmates who asked a judge to order the Arkansas Department of Correction to turn over documents about lethal injection drugs now want the judge to clarify his ruling in the case.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Collins Kilgore ruled last month that the inmates can't use Arkansas' open records law to obtain information about the origin, history of quality of the drugs the state will use to execute them.

But the inmates say Kilgore's order did not mention their request for judgment about the release of documents under the state's new lethal injection law.

Earlier coverage of Arkansas lethal injection issues begins at the link.

Georgia Lethal Injection Drug Legislation

Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, "Lethal injection secrecy bill wins approval."  It's by Rhonda Cook and Bill Rankin.

The Legislature Tuesday approved keeping secret the identities of the companies that provide drugs for executions even as the Department of Corrections is preparing to destroy its stockpile of 13 vials because it expires this month.

Such information as the expiration date — which was obtained in an open records request by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution — could be withheld from the public if Gov. Nathan Deal signs House Bill 122. The proposed law, which Corrections officials sought, would make the identities of those who make and supply the lethal injection drug a “state secret,” which means Georgia would have the discretion to hide the information.

The proposed law also makes a state secret the names of prison staff who carry out executions. For decades, the Georgia has kept the names of security staff secret. It would now shield the names of private doctors the prison system hires to carry out executions.

The legislation should make it easier for Georgia to obtain lethal-injection drugs as companies worldwide, in the face of strong criticism from opponents of capital punishment, have either stopped making lethal injection drugs or forbidden such drugs from being used for executions. Just two years ago, it was disclosed that the state Department of Corrections had resorted to obtaining its supply of one drug used in the lethal-injection process from Dream Pharma, a company that operated in the back of a storefront driving school in London.

The legislation is also expected to make it more difficult for lawyers representing death-row inmates to challenge the state’s lethal-injection process.

And:

Sara Totonchi, executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, said the legislation that won final passage Tuesday “completely undermines the transparency and accountability of the government’s role in the grievous act of extinguishing human life, a role that should be subject to the most stringent public oversight available in the legal system.”

Earlier coverage of the Georgia legislation begins at the link.

Arkansas Judge Rules Inmates Cannot See Lethal Injection Drug Info

"Judge: Ark. lethal injection records FOIA exempt," is the AP report by Michael Stratford, via the Stuttgart Daily Leader.

Death-row inmates cannot use Arkansas' open records law to obtain information about the origin, history of quality of the drugs the state will use to execute them, a state judge ruled Monday.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Collins Kilgore ruled after a hearing Monday that communication between the Department of Correction and a drug company was not subject to disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act — even for the inmates who may one day receive a fatal dose.

Six condemned killers sought the information despite a section of the FOI law that limits the release of certain information about execution procedures — including how the drugs are obtained. The Legislature last month changed execution procedures after the state Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that previous lawmakers had given the Correction Department too much control over the process.

Kilgore said that, following a review of emails and other communication between the Department of Correction and a drug company, he had to reject the inmates' request. A Department of Correction official testified Monday the documents reflected an attempt to open an account with a drug manufacturer to procure new lethal injection drugs.

An attorney for the six inmates, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, had said they should have a right to the information because of problems with drugs obtained in the past. He noted in a court filing that his clients discovered in 2011 that the state was seeking to execute them using "unregulated, non-FDA-approved chemicals that it obtained from a business operating out of the back of an overseas driving school."

After Kilgore's decision Monday, Rozenzweig said the inmates would appeal.

The Arkansas News Bureau reports, "Judge denies inmates access to execution documents."

A judge Monday turned down a request by a group of death-row inmate for access to information about the drugs the state plans to use to execute them.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Collins Kilgore ruled that the information sought by six condemned killers was exempt from public disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act under provisions of a law passed just this year setting out procedures for the Department of Correction to carry out lethal injections.

Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig filed the suit in Pulaski County Circuit Court last week on behalf of death-row inmates Stacey Johnson, Jack Jones, Jason McGehee, Bruce Ward, Kenneth Williams and Marcel Williams. They allege the DOC did not fully comply with their FOI request for documents about the drugs.

Rosenzweig said Monday he likely would filed motions for clarifications of Kilgore’s ruling.

“If we end up with a ruling that we’re not pleased with, we’re going to appeal,” he said.

In a filing Friday, the attorney general’s office said the documents the inmates sought are exempt from the FOI under Act 139 of 2013.

Act 139 was enacted in response to a state Supreme Court ruling last year that the state’s previous lethal-injection law gave too much discretion to the DOC director, in violation of the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers.

The new law sets forth the types of drugs that the Department of Correction can use for lethal injections and states that the specific procedures for carrying out the death penalty “are not subject to disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.”

Saturday's edition of the Baxter Bulletin carried an AP report on the state attorney general's filing, "AG asks judge to dismiss Arkansas prisoners' lawsuit."  It was written by Jeannie Nuss.

The attorney general’s office on Friday asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit from six death row inmates who want the court to order the Arkansas Department of Correction to turn over documents about lethal injection drugs.

Assistant Attorney General David Curran argued that the documents the inmates are seeking are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Plus, Curran said, the inmates will almost certainly file another lawsuit, regardless of whether they get the documents they want.

Arkansas hasn’t executed a death row inmate since 2005 in part because of legal challenges.

The state Supreme Court last year deemed Arkansas’ 2009 lethal injection law unconstitutional, saying the Legislature had given the Department of Correction “unfettered discretion” to figure out the protocol and procedures for executions, including the chemicals to be used.

The Legislature this year enacted a new lethal injection law that spells out in greater detail the procedures that must be followed. The new law says the state must use a lethal dose of a barbiturate, but leaves it up to the Department of Correction to determine which drug. Correction officials say they haven’t figured out which drug to use yet.

Arkansas doesn’t have any pending executions, but Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s office recently took a step toward changing that. His office asked the Supreme Court to lift stays of execution for six of the state’s 37 death row inmates: Don Davis, Stacey Johnson, Jack Jones, Jason McGehee, Bruce Ward and Marcel Williams.

Earlier coverage of lethal injection issues from Arkansas begins at the link.

Georgia Legislation

"Bill would cloak lethal injection information in secrecy," is by Bill Rankin for today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The names of those who carry out Georgia’s executions and the identities of those that supply the lethal drugs would be classified as “state secrets” under legislation moving through the General Assembly.

Rep. Kevin Tanner, R-Dawsonville, who sponsored the privacy exception, said it is needed to protect individuals involved in the execution process. But opponents said it shields from view how Georgia acquires its lethal-injection drugs and could, if there is a botched execution, prevent the public from finding out why it happened.

Tanner successfully attached the “state secrets” amendment to House Bill 122, which was approved by the Senate Judiciary Non-Civil Committee on Wednesday.

It would keep private the names of the guards on duty during executions, the pharmacist who fills out the prescription and the person who administers the lethal drug, he said. The amendment also requires the identifying information of any entity that “manufactures, supplies, compounds or prescribes” the lethal injection drugs to be classified.

Tanner, a former Department of Corrections board member, said he has been working with the agency on the amendment. Nearly half of the states with the death penalty have enacted similar legislation.

And:

William Montross, a lawyer for the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, said no one wants the names of the actual executioners.

“That is not what this bill is about,” he said. “It is about giving the Georgia Department of Corrections cover so that no one can see how they obtain the drugs they use to kill people. Transparency is being thrown out the window.”

Earlier coverage from Georgia begins at the link; also available, the state's lethal injection issues.

Lethal Injection Update From Arkansas

"Ark. death row inmates want execution drug records," is the AP report by Jeannie Nuss, via the San Antonio Express-News.

Six death row inmates asked a court this week to order the Arkansas Department of Correction to turn over documents about lethal injection drugs under a public records request.

Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig filed paperwork Monday in Pulaski County also asking the court to declare that all available information about the origin, history and quality of lethal injection drugs must be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act.

"Not only the condemned people, but the people in the state of Arkansas have a right to know what's being done in their name," Rosenzweig told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Rosenzweig said a fellow attorney, Josh Lee, asked correction spokeswoman Shea Wilson for records related to lethal injection drugs earlier this month. But according to Rosenzweig's lawsuit, Wilson said the department didn't have any new information to release under the state's new lethal injection law.

Lee wrote back to Wilson, saying he took her response to mean that she had records responsive to his request and that she was refusing to disclose them because of an FOIA exemption in the lethal injection law.

The Arkansas News Bureau reports, "Inmates seek release of information on lethal-injection drugs."

Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig said Tuesday he filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Monday after the Department of Correction did not, in his opinion, fully comply with a request submitted under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

A law enacted earlier this year sets forth the types of drugs that the Department of Correction can use for lethal injections. The law was a response to a state Supreme Court ruling last year that the previous lethal-injection law gave too much discretion to the DOC director, in violation of the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers.

Also, Rosenzweig and other attorneys representing a group of death-row inmates whose executions had been stayed because of the Supreme Court ruling asked the Supreme Court on Monday to deny a motion by the state to lift the stays.

Rosenzweig said it is not entirely clear whether the new lethal-injection law has cured the problems identified by the Supreme Court.

“I think most would agree it reduces the separation-of-powers problem. I don’t think it necessarily fully solves it. A court will have to decide,” he said.

Earlier coverage of Arkansas lethal injection issues begins at the link.

Federal Judge Stays Louisiana Execution Over LI Questions

The Associated Press reports, "Federal judge delays Louisiana's plan to execute man next week; convicted of killing stepson, by Melinda DeSlatte.  It's via The Republic.

Louisiana cannot execute a DeSoto Parish man next week because the state has provided too little information about the drug that will be used in the lethal injection and the execution methods, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge James Brady canceled the Feb. 13 execution date for Christopher Sepulvado, who was convicted of the beating and scalding death of his 6-year-old stepson two decades ago.

Brady said without more details about the protocol the Louisiana State Penitentiary plans to use in preparing for and carrying out the injection, lawyers for Sepulvado cannot protect his right against cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The state will have the opportunity to execute Sepulvado, Brady said, adding, "But it must do so in a constitutional manner."

Until this week, the Department of Corrections hadn't confirmed it switched from a three-chemical lethal injection process to a one-drug execution method using pentobarbital.

The department gave the name of the drug it plans to use in a hearing in Brady's court, but offered no further details to Sepulvado's lawyers about how and when it was purchased, what training was provided to prison staff, who will carry out the execution and what type of medical supervision if any is involved.

The Baton Rouge Advocate posts, "Federal judge calls off execution scheduled for Wednesday," by Bill Lodge.

U.S. District Judge James Brady also ordered Thursday morning that the attorneys for the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections provide attorneys for the inmate with information sought about how the state carries out the death penalty.

Brady said the execution is stayed until further notice from his court.

And:

Brady held a hearing in the Sepulvado case earlier this week during which an attorney for state corrections officials said the department has replaced a three-chemical lethal injection formula with a single dose of pentobarbital. The Tuesday hearing was held for Sepulvado’s attorneys to express concerns about the three-chemical formula possibly causing an agonizing death.

"Federal judge halts execution scheduled for next week," by John Simerman for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

A federal judge on Thursday stayed the scheduled execution of Christopher Sepulvado, who was due to die by lethal injection on Wednesday (Feb. 13). U.S. District Judge James Brady of the Middle District of Louisiana stopped the execution pending more information on the state's lethal injection protocol.

Brady had allowed Sepulvado to intervene Wednesday in a federal lawsuit, Hoffman v. Jindal, challenging the state's lethal injection protocol. The injunction Thursday means that Sepulvado's execution is on hold indefinitely while the Hoffman case proceeds, said Gary Clements, director of the Capital Post Conviction Project of Lousiana

And:

"They have never given us everything in writing. They've never given us a document from the state or the department of corrections or anybody. They've not given us a protocol," Clements said. "We're still in the dark about a huge amount of stuff. What's the expiration date on this? The federal government has very strict rules on the inventorying of these drugs.

"Right now their protocol is non-existent to us."

The Louisiana Supreme Court late last month denied Sepulvado's request for a stay of execution. Earlier this week, the state Board of Pardons denied his clemency petition.

Sepulvado's attorneys will return to state court Friday (Feb. 8) to press corrections officials to turn over documents revealing its execution procedure and the drug protocol, under public records laws.

Earlier coverage of Louisiana lethal injection issues begins at the link.

The Georgia Execution Drugs

Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, "Expired drugs led to cancellation of execution by lethal injection."  It's by Rhonda Cook.

One of the drugs the state was set to use last month in Warren Hill's scheduled execution had expired two weeks before he was supposed to die, records show.

The Department of Corrections tried to keep the execution on track by changing its procedures from using three drugs to only one, a barbiturate. That decision, however, became the basis for a stay issued by the Georgia Supreme Court less than two hours before Hill was to die for a 1990 murder.

Hill's execution is now on hold at least until November when the justices have said they will hear lawyers' arguments as to whether the state's Administrative Procedures Act requires 30 days of public comment before Corrections can make the change.

In an email Thursday, the Department of Corrections said: "The unavailability of pancuronium bromide was a factor in the decision to change Georgia's execution protocol but it was not the overriding concern."

DOC said there were alternatives to pancuronium bromide but the agency decided — the day before the scheduled execution — to switch to one drug instead of three after reviewing expert testimony, court decisions and the experiences of other states.

The agency's said it had been considering the change for a year, since it was forced to replace sodium thiopental with pentobarbital because of a shortage of that drug.

And:

Documents obtained under the Georgia Open Records Act show the agency's supply of the paralytic pancuronium bromide, the second drug administered in the three-drug series, had expired on July 1. The DOC's supply of the sedative pentobarbital and potassium chloride, the final drug that stops the heart, were current.

Usually the potency of out-of-date drugs diminishes, said Randall Tackett, professor at the University of Georgia School of Pharmacy. If a condemned murderer is not completely paralyze, Tackett said, there could be a response to the injection of the potassium chloride, which can be extremely painful, even though sedated.

Also:

According to 2,237 pages the Department of Corrections provided the AJC, there were no meeting notes, calendar entries or internal communications that reflected internal discussions of changing the lethal injection protocol in the months and years before July 17.

"This further proves that there are significant problems when a system is shrouded in secrecy," said Sara Totonchi, executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights. "If we are going to have the death penalty, then we certainly need to know all of the facts before an execution is carried out."

"Expired drugs led to delay of scheduled execution of man by lethal injection for 1990 murder," is the AP filing, via the Republic.

Records show that one of the drugs that were to be used in Warren Hill's scheduled execution in Georgia last month had expired two weeks before he was scheduled to die.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Department of Corrections tried to change its procedures from three drugs to one — a barbiturate — in an effort to keep the execution on track.

However, the Georgia Supreme Court issued a stay less than two hours before Hill was to be executed for a 1990 murder.

The Department of Corrections said in a statement Thursday that the unavailability of pancuronium bromide was a factor in the decision to change Georgia's execution protocol, but it was not an "overriding concern."

Earlier coverage of Warren Hill's case and his scheduled execution begins at the link.

Texas Stockpiled Lethal Injection Drugs

Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Records: Texas bought execution drugs before supply dwindled."  It's by Mike Ward.

Turned down in their request for secrecy by state Attorney General Greg Abbott for the second time in as many months, Texas prison officials have revealed that their large stockpile of lethal injection drugs — probably the largest in the country — came from a South Carolina pharmaceutical supplier.

In releasing invoices and other records about its supply chain, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shed new light on how it obtained the stockpile of a key drug used in executions last year, at a time when other states were unable to purchase any and some were being forced to switch to other drugs.

The information confirmed that Texas purchased its lethal drugs in spring 2011 through a U.S.-based supplier, not through a shadowy overseas network that several other states had used last year — actions that drew federal agents to seize illegally imported drugs.

Texas appeared to get a head start on other states by buying the drugs when supplies were still available. By the summer of 2011, the domestic supplies had mostly dried up — and the other states were left hunting for pentobarbital in places such as England and Pakistan.

Last month, the Texas agency, which operates the busiest death chamber in the United States, confirmed that it had enough lethal drugs on hand to carry out as many as 23 executions — and that it does not prepare backup doses of the three drugs, as officials previously had said state policy requires.

And:

Invoices made public by the agency Wednesday show that more than $51,000 worth of the powerful sedative Nembutal, a brand name for pentobarbital, was purchased in March and April 2011 through Physician Sales and Service in Houston.

Other forms disclosed Wednesday show it was shipped from company offices in West Columbia, S.C.

Calls to the company in both locations were not returned. Company officials previously had not commented about the sales.

The newly disclosed documents reveal that in one shipment, three of 39 vials of Nembutal were broken in transit. The state received a credit for the breakage, according to the records.

Earlier coverage of Texas' lethal injection drugs and TDCJ's resistance to releasing public information begins at the link.

4 Western US States Shielding Part of Executions

UPDATE: The AP has posted a correction.  It's via the Washingotn Post.

In a May 22 story about a lawsuit over witnessing executions in Idaho, The Associated Press erroneously reported, based on information provided by a Nevada Department of Corrections spokesman, that Nevada barred all witnesses from the first half of lethal injection executions. In fact, Nevada allowed witnesses to view its last execution in 2006 in its entirety.

The post title has been changed to reflect the correction.

That's the title of an AP report written by Rebecca Boone.  It's via the Houston Chronicle and it begins today's lethal injection news. :

A U.S. appeals court ruled in 2002 that every aspect of an execution should be open to witnesses, from the moment the condemned enters the death chamber to his or her final heartbeat.

The ruling established what was expected of the nine Western states within the court's jurisdiction. A decade later, five of the states have kept part of each execution away from public view, according to an Associated Press review and death penalty experts.

Idaho, Arizona, Washington, Montana and Nevada have conducted 15 lethal injections since the ruling, and half of each procedure has been behind closed doors.

That means that a small group of witnesses, including members of news organizations who act as representatives of the public, do not see, for instance, the insertion of the IVs that deliver the fatal drug mixture.

The practice comes at a time when the method itself has drawn greater scrutiny, from whether the drugs are effective to whether the execution personnel are properly trained.

The states that limit access say they do so to protect the anonymity of the execution team, which may include emergency medical technicians, military medics or others trained to insert IVs. Open government and journalism groups argue that witnessing all aspects of an execution is the only way to determine if it is being properly carried out.

The AP and 16 other organizations on Tuesday sued the state of Idaho to force officials to open the entirety of their executions, arguing that the news media, and by extension the public, has a First Amendment right to view all steps of lethal injections.

"This lawsuit is really all about obtaining access to the entire execution process for viewing purposes," said Chuck Brown, the attorney representing the news organizations. "It's very important in a society such as ours to have full transparency in regards to the exercise of government authority."

And:

Several high-profile cases since 2006 have raised questions about the way states conduct lethal injections.

In two instances in Ohio, one of the few states that allow witnesses to see the entire process, corrections staff couldn't find a vein. In one of those cases, officials halted the execution and the inmate remains on death row. With news organizations present, the experiences of the inmate, Romell Broom, were widely reported.

In another case, in Florida in 2006, which does not allow viewing of the IV insertions, executioners pushed the needles through Angel Nieves Diaz's target veins and into the soft tissue beneath. He had to be given a second dose and took 34 minutes to die — more than twice the normal time.

Also:

In the 1990s, several news organizations attempted to get on the witness list for the lethal injection of William Bonin in California. Bonin was dubbed the "Freeway Killer" for the serial murders of 14 young men and boys.

Those who did witness the execution were unsure about what they saw.

Bonin was already strapped to a gurney with IV tubes attached when the death chamber's curtains were drawn open. He barely moved, and his eyes were closed. A few silent minutes passed, and then he was pronounced dead.

The California First Amendment Coalition sued, saying the limited access violated the public's First Amendment rights to view executions. California officials argued the restriction was necessary to preserve the execution team's anonymity.

In 2002, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument, saying there were other ways to protect their identity. Execution team members could wear surgical masks, hats and gloves, the court noted.

"Independent public scrutiny — made possible by the public and media witnesses to an execution — plays a significant role in the proper functioning of capital punishment," the judges ruled.

The ruling applies to a region that stretches from Montana to Hawaii and Alaska. Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands do not have the death penalty, and Oregon currently has a moratorium on executions. Only California has followed the ruling.

Boone has also written a sidebar AP article, "US executions go from town square to behind bars."  There are photos at the link.

America's executions have changed dramatically over the years, morphing from daylong events in the town square to somber and tightly controlled affairs held deep inside prisons.

Driving the change was the quest for a less gruesome — even less painful — method of execution.

Along the way, the public saw less of what happens when the state puts an inmate to death.

Today, nearly all of the 34 states that use lethal injection restrict access to half of every execution, shielding from view the portion when the condemned enters the death chamber and the IV lines are inserted.

In early America, hanging was the standard.

Typically, hundreds of spectators would pack the town square or hanging ground, bringing picnics and listening to sermons, said Trina Seitz, a death penalty expert at Appalachian State University.

By the 1800s, politicians were growing concerned that the atmosphere had grown too festive.

Spectators sometimes got more violence than they bargained for. If the hanging rope was too short, the condemned would slowly suffocate. If it was too long, he would be beheaded.

Starting in the 1820s, states began moving hangings inside prison yards.

Over the following decades, another development began to affect the way people viewed pain: anesthesia.

Doctors were using it to keep their patients from feeling pain, and that made them used to the idea that pain was avoidable, said Stuart Banner, a legal historian and professor with UCLA's School of Law.

More on the Idaho lawsuit in the next post

The Texas Lethal Injection Drug Stock

"Texas has enough lethal drugs for 23 executions, officials say," is the Austin American-Statesman report by Mike Ward.

Forced to go public by an order from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, state prison officials late Friday disclosed that they have enough lethal drugs on hand to carry out as many as 23 executions.

The agency also said Friday that it does not prepare backup doses of the lethal drugs for each execution, as state officials have long said policy requires.

In a brief statement issued without elaboration, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it has 46 2.5-gram vials of Nembutal on hand and similar amounts of two other drugs included in a three-drug cocktail used in executions at the Huntsville Unit.

That could mean that Texas has the largest stockpile of the lethal drugs in the country, at a time when other states are scrambling to find suppliers for the same drugs.

Death penalty critics have long suspected that Texas has not been following state policy on backup doses, but until Friday there was no official confirmation.

For years, state officials have said agency policy calls for them to prepare double doses of the three-drug cocktail in case the initial round fails. If the backups were prepared, each execution would use twice the amount of lethal drugs as is needed if the first dose executes the prisoner.

Prison officials have previously refused to comment on whether the backup doses were being prepared. But on Friday, officials said that they interpret the policy to require the drugs to be on hand but not in syringes.

"The backup set of lethal injection drugs is not actually prepared, but an additional dose is available if needed," the brief statement said Friday.

Abbott's opinion Monday was prompted by requests under the Texas Public Information Act filed by the American-Statesman and a reporter for The Guardian, a British newspaper.

"After Texas AG ruling, prison officials air lethal injection drug information," is Allan Turner's report for the Houston Chronicle.

The issue is a particularly sensitive one at TDCJ, which has faced significant problems in obtaining ingredients for its three-drug "lethal cocktail" used in executions. Scarcity of the drugs has propelled the cost of an execution from about $83 to $1,286 in only a year, the Austin newspaper reported.

On Friday, TDCJ reported that it has 46 2.5-gram vials of pentobarbital, a drug administered to sedate the condemned inmate; 290 10-mg vials of pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant used to halt breathing; and 737 20-milliequivalent vials of potassium chloride, a drug injected to stop the heart.

The agency, which has executed five killers this year, did not indicate how many individuals could be put to death with the existing stock.

The AP filing is, "Texas prison officials say they have enough drugs for 23 executions," by Michael Graczyk.  It's via the Longview News-Journal.

Texas prison officials disclosed Friday they have enough lethal drugs to execute as many as 23 people.

In response to this week’s opinion from the state attorney general’s office that said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice could not withhold information about the drug supply, the department said it currently has 46 2.5-gram vials of pentobarbital. A 5-gram dose — about 3.4 ounces — is the first lethal drug used during each execution in Huntsville, according to Texas execution procedures.

The prison agency said it had similar supplies of two other drugs also administered to condemned inmates. It did not, though, identify suppliers of the lethal drugs, which the opinion also had addressed.

Executions also involve 100 milligrams of pancuronium bromide and 140 milliequivalents of potassium chloride. Texas has 290 10-milligram vials of the pancuronium bromide — 10 are required per execution — and 737 20-milliequivalent vials of potassium chloride — seven per punishment.

The department’s written procedures call for a matching set of drugs and syringes “in case unforeseen events make their use necessary.” But in a brief statement emailrd to reporters late Friday, the agency said a backup set of lethal drugs for executions “is not actually prepared, but an additional dose is available if needed.”

The attorney general’s opinion, dated Monday, was an answer to public information requests filed earlier this year by the Austin American-Statesman and British newspaper The Guardian.

Prison officials had argued that releasing the information could be harmful to employees and provide death penalty opponents a way to harass the drug suppliers with the hope firms would refuse to do business with the state.

“We find your arguments as to how disclosure of the requested drug quantities would result in the disruption of the execution process or otherwise interfere with law enforcement to be too speculative,” Sean Opperman, an assistant attorney general, wrote in the opinion.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.  The Attorney General's Open Record Decision OR2012-07088 is available in Adobe .pdf format.

According to TDCJ, six Texas executions are currently scheduled; the next is set for June 6.

Related posts are in the lethal injeciton index.

TDCJ Must Release Lethal Injection Drug Stock Information

The Attorney General's Open Record Decision OR2012-07088 is available in Adobe .pdf format.

Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Prisons system ordered to release details on execution drugs."  It's written by Mike Ward.

In a victory for open government, Texas prison officials on Thursday lost their latest attempt to keep secret details about its stock and suppliers of lethal injection drugs.

In an opinion dated Monday, Attorney General Greg Abbott overruled arguments by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that disclosure of the information would endanger employees and allow death-penalty opponents to try to cut off the agency's supply line for the three drugs used in executions.

The attorney general's decision was prompted by requests for details about the state's lethal-drug supplies and suppliers filed in February by the American-Statesman and The Guardian, a British newspaper.

In seeking to keep secret most information about the source, cost and inventory of lethal drugs, prison system attorney Patricia Fleming had argued that disclosing details about the drugs could allow death penalty opponents to harass suppliers and otherwise "engage in a campaign to cut off the supply of execution drugs."

Abbott's office rejected those claims as too speculative and said the state must release the information. But prison officials were in no rush Thursday to make the information public.

"Haven't seen the ruling yet. Will get back to you in the next day or two after I have had a chance to review it," Melinda Bozarth, the agency's general counsel, said in an email.

Even so, advocates of transparency in Texas' execution process hailed the decision.

"They rightly reject as speculative TDCJ's outlandish and unfounded assertions that release of this public information would interfere with law enforcement or threaten public safety," said Maurie Levin, a University of Texas adjunct law professor who was criticized in the prison agency's request to Abbott for working to make public details about Texas' execution process as part of her work on court appeals for condemned prisoners.

And:

The opinion marks the second time in two years that Abbott has blocked prison officials' attempts to keep secret details about the lethal drugs. In the fall of 2010, they sought to withhold much of the same information — at one point claiming that disclosure could possibly cause rioting outside the death chamber in Huntsville by inflaming the controversy over the death penalty.

Earlier coverage of TDCJ's lethal injection stock begins at the link.  Earlier coverage of the agency's battle against the Texas Open Records Act is also available.

TDCJ Continues Push for Privacy

Today's Houston Chronicle reports, "TDCJ wants to block release of lethal injection drug info."  It's by Allan Turner.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is refusing to disclose the size of its stock of a key pharmaceutical used in executions, saying doing so would endanger its drug makers and suppliers.

The charge comes in a brief filed with the Texas Attorney General's Office in response to a December query by an British newspaper concerning the contents of state's death house medicine chest. The agency said releasing such information would provide ammunition for Reprieve, a British anti-death penalty group that successfully has pressured drug makers to stop selling to executioners.

Likening Reprieve's campaigns to those of violent prison gangs, the brief written by TDCJ Assistant General Counsel Patricia Fleming asserts that releasing information "creates a substantial risk of physical harm to our supplier. ... It is not a question of if, but when, Reprieve's unrestrained harassment will escalate into violence..."

TDCJ is seeking authorization not to answer questions posed in a December public information request by Ed Pilkington, the New York correspondent for The Guardian, a national British newspaper. An attorney general's response is expected this month.

Pilkington sought to determine how much pentobarbital, one of three drugs used in executions, the death house had in stock. He also asked how the agency met requirements that a second "back up" dose of lethal drugs be available at executions.

"I was very surprised by the language they chose to use, which was pretty inflammatory, really," Pilkington said. "Obviously, there is an international disagreement over the death penalty. ... Usually that discourse is conducted in a civilized manner."

And:

Joseph Larsen, a lawyer for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said Pilkington's questions go to the "heart of how effectively TDCJ performs its official functions."

"The whole idea behind the Texas Public Information Act is that the governmental bodies do not get to control the information that underlies political discussion," he said. "Specifically, the governmental body does not even get to ask why a requestor wants certain information. How then can a governmental body base its argument for withholding on what use it anticipates will be made of the information if released?"

Earlier coverage of TDCJ's response to the Open Records Act request begins at the link.

Texas' Lethal Injection Stock Replinished?

Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Prison system appears to have bought $50,000 in execution drug last year."  It's by Mike Ward.

A year ago, facing a possible shortage of key drugs needed to keep the nation's busiest execution chamber in business, Texas prison officials appear to have purchased tens of thousands of dollars worth of the lethal drugs, new disclosures by state officials reveal.

While no detail is provided, records obtained by the American-Statesman hint that Texas could have enough of the drugs on hand to cover its executions for more than a year and perhaps the largest stockpile in the country — at a time when other states are scrambling to find suppliers for the same drugs.

The disclosure came this week, when the Texas Department of Criminal Justice filed paperwork seeking to keep secret all details of five purchases last May and June of "medical supplies" from Physician Sales & Service Inc.

Asked by the Statesman to make public details about those purchases made with taxpayer dollars, as the agency routinely does with other items it buys, prison officials appealed to Attorney General Greg Abbott to keep the information from public view.

"The requested copies of vouchers, invoices, purchase orders and other purchasing documents will reveal the identities of suppliers of the agency's lethal injection drugs," Patricia Fleming, an assistant general counsel for the prison system, wrote in a letter Tuesday to Abbott.

Although Fleming's letter seems to state that the purchases were lethal drugs, a spokesman for the prison agency disputed that.

"We've not identified what the medical supplies are listed on the invoices," prison spokesman Jason Clark said.

In seeking to keep the information secret, Fleming wrote that disclosure would allow death penalty opponents and others "to intimidate, harass and threaten the suppliers, forcing them to shut down production or blacklist correctional departments."

She also accused an "abolitionist coalition" including death penalty opponents, human-rights organizations, criminal defense attorneys and the media of engaging in a campaign to cut off the supply of execution drugs.

And:

It accused groups such as Reprieve, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International of harassment and intimidation of state corrections agencies such as Texas' prison system from being able to buy the lethal drugs.

London-based Reprieve is singled out for the harshest criticism. Fleming compares it to a violent prison gang.

The group's methods "present classic, hallmark practices comparable to practices by gangs incarcerated in the TDCJ who intimidate and coerce rival gang members and which have erupted into prison riots," Fleming wrote.

"It is not a question of if but when Reprieve's unrestrained harassment will escalate into violence against a supplier" of the lethal drugs, the letter says.

Maya Foa, a London-based investigator for Reprieve who was criticized by name in Fleming's filing, said the drug companies "objected to the misuse of their products well before they met Reprieve. ... These companies' ethics and actions are very much their own."

Earlier coverage of TDCJ's war of words with Reprieve begins at the link.

Clive Stafford-Smith on TDCJ's Charge

The Guardian posts, "A response to Texas' charge of 'intimidation' against Reprieve," at Comment Is Free.  It's by Clive Stafford Smith, founder of Reprieve and death penalty litigator.  Here's the beginning:

The Guardian has reported an extraordinary attack on Reprieve by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Reprieve is accused of "'intimidation and commercial harassment' of manufacturers of medical drugs used in lethal injections". We are "authoritarian ideologues who menace and harass private citizens who decline to submit to Reprieve's opinion on the morality of capital punishment by lethal injection." The Guardian is correct that this is "astonishingly vivid language"; it is also defamatory nonsense, and I would like to set the record straight.

This week, I was in Copenhagen, meeting with the Ulf Wiinberg, the CEO of Lundbeck, a Danish pharmaceutical company. Unbeknown to Wiinberg, some months back, the TDCJ had got its hands on a drug manufactured by Lundbeck, pentobarbital, and wanted to use it to kill people. Wiinberg and his colleagues had been horrified to learn of this. Their corporate emblem is a starfish, and he elaborated to me on the ancient Chinese tale behind it: an old man, picking up starfish and tossing them back into the sea, was confronted by a cynic: "Why bother? There are thousands, and many will die." He replied: "To this single starfish, it is the difference between life and death."

Lundbeck's corporate purpose is to help the starfish into the water – to promote health, and save lives. The TDCJ would rather snatch a healthy starfish from the sea and put it on dry land to die. There is the difference. It is not Reprieve that "intimidates" Lundbeck; it is the TDCJ that wishes to use Lundbeck's drug in a manner antithetical to its purpose, without the basic good manners that might have prompted a call to Wiinberg to forewarn him, or ask for consent.

Indeed, the TDCJ is not just rude; it is itself a major actor in a broader pattern of illegality and harassment. The TDCJ suggests that Reprieve has somehow acted improperly with respect to Dream Pharma, the UK drug company that surreptitiously exported sodium thiopental to the US for executions from its office in a driving school in Acton. Yet, by a convenient coincidence, this Tuesday, federal district judge Richard Leon issued an order against the US Food and Drug Administration, ruling that it was the US government – not Reprieve – that had acted illegally in that case.

Earlier coverage of TDCJ's statements about Reprieve, in opposition to a Texas Open Records Request by the Guardian, begins at the link.

Who Is Over the Top?

The Guardian has just posted, "Texas accuses anti-death penalty charity Reprieve of fomenting violence," by  Ed Pilkington.  Here's an extended excerpt:

Texas, America's most prolific practitioner of the death penalty, has launched an extraordinary attack on the international anti-death penalty charity Reprieve, accusing it of intimidating and harassing drug companies and likening the group to violent prison gangs responsible for the eruption of prison riots.

The attack comes from the Texas department of criminal justice, TDCJ, which each year carries out the lion's share of executions in America. In a letter to the attorney general of Texas, Greg Abbott, the TDCJ accuses Reprieve of "intimidation and commercial harassment" of manufacturers of medical drugs used in lethal injections.

In astonishingly vivid language, the TDCJ says that Reprieve, which is headquartered in London, "crosses the line from social activists dedicated to their cause to authoritarian ideologues who menace and harass private citizens who decline to submit to Reprieve's opinion on the morality of capital punishment by lethal injection".

Reprieve's tactics present the risk, the Texas prison service claims, of violence. "It is not a question of if but when Reprieve's unrestrained harassment will escalate into violence against a supplier."

In the most colourful accusation, the TDCJ compares the human rights organisation to gangs operating in Texas prisons. It writes that Reprieve's methods "present classic, hallmark practices comparable to practices by gangs incarcerated in the TDCJ who intimidate and coerce rival gang members and which have erupted into prison riots".

The Texas letter takes the war of words between US states still practising executions and anti-death penalty campaigners to a new level. Reprieve has long had fraught relations with states practising capital punishment in the US, but never before has it been accused of fomenting violence.

Maya Foa, Reprieve's specialist campaigner on lethal injection, said the accusation was absurd. "Pharmaceutical manufacturers have been objecting to the use of medicines in executions since the lethal injection was invented – Reprieve didn't create these ethical scruples! And far from harassing them, Reprieve defends these companies and their ideals and we have excellent relationships with them.

And:

Texas makes its assault on Reprieve in a 15-page brief that it composed in response to a request for information from the Guardian relating to the quanitity of anaesthetic that the prison service had left in its supplies. The pool of anaesthetic – the first drug used in a cocktail of three chemicals that makes up the lethal injection – has been running low as a result of boycotts in Europe and other countries.

In its brief, the TDCJ makes a case for withholding the information requested by the Guardian on security grounds. It says that to release information on drug stocks would help Reprieve identify the source of the medicines and that in turn would create "a substantial risk of physical harm to the supplier".

The article notes that pharmaceutical companies have repeatedly asked departments of corrections to not use their drugs in lethal injection executions.

Earlier coverage of Reprieve begins at the link.  Reprieve was was also involved with calculations on the diminishing stock of Texas' lethal injection drugs. 

Related posts are in the international and lethal injection indexes.

The Cost of Lethal Injection Drugs

Today's Austin American-Statesman carries the editorial, "Add cost of drugs to death penalty debate."

Add to the list of topics for public discussion the high cost of dying.

The American-Statesman's Mike Ward reported last week that the cost of chemicals used to execute condemned inmates has jumped from $83.35 to $1,286.86 each.

And:

Prison officials are avoiding questions about most aspects carrying out executions, citing the fear of driving up costs and impeding their drug supply.

Prison authorities want Attorney General Greg Abbott to allow them to keep most information about the execution drugs — where they come from and how much they cost — secret.

An informed discussion is vital and not knowing about the drugs and their costs works against that. Texans have a right to know how their money is being spent.

Abbott should open up those books, not close them.

"Death penalty: Cost of execution drugs -- and executions -- rises," is the title of Molly Hennessy-Fiske's Los Angeles Times report.  It's also available via the Chicago Tribune.

Texas prison officials say they have enough of the drug to carry out the five executions scheduled this year, but they declined to comment about how much of the drug they have or what they plan to do if supplies run low.

Prison officials are seeking a ruling from Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott before releasing execution drug records, Clark said.

“We're not releasing information on our supplier, the amount we paid for specific drugs and the amount of drugs on hand,” Clark said. “The agency is seeking an AG's opinion to keep the information confidential.”

And:

The price increase in execution drugs is also being felt in Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio, Mississippi and South Carolina.

Oregon purchased $18,000 worth of the drugs last year, but the execution for which they were planned was ultimately called off by the governor -- who said he would approve no others. Corrections officials in other states had hoped they might be able to buy some of the leftover pentobarbital, but Oregon officials said last month that they had returned the drug to a wholesaler.

The execution drug shortage was highlighted earlier this month in a report in the Guardian about an investigation by the London-based human rights group Reprieve. Maya Foa, with the group’s Stop Lethal Injection Project, estimated the remaining stocks of pentobarbital in Georgia and Texas based on public records.

Foa calculated that Texas had 27 vials of pentobarbital left. The state needs four vials per execution -- two to inject the prisoner, two as backup -- meaning the state has enough for at least six executions, she estimated.

She estimated that Georgia had 17 vials of pentobarbital, enough for four executions.

The AP report, "New drug sparks sharp increase in execution costs," by Michael Graczyk is via Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

The switch to a substitute drug for executions has driven up the cost of capital punishment in Texas.

A year ago, the European supplier of sodium thiopental, bowing to pressure from death penalty opponents, stopped making it. When no other vendor could be found, the drug was replaced by pentobarbital as one of the three used in the lethal injection process.

With sodium thiopental, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said the cost of the lethal injection cocktail was $83.35. It is now $1286.86, with the higher cost primarily due to pentobarbital, officials said. The other drugs are pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

A dozen executions have been conducted with the new lethal cocktail in Texas and at least five are scheduled in the coming months.

According to the new numbers, Texas has spent more than $15,400 — versus $1,000 — to carry out those 12 executions.

Prison officials have declined to identify the state’s drug supplier and the specific amount for each drug and are awaiting an opinion from the Texas attorney general on whether they can keep that information confidential.

Earlier coverage of the cost and availability of of Texas execution drugs begins at the link.  Related posts are in the lethal injection and TDCJ indexes.

Cost of Executions Skyrocketing in Texas, Other States

That's the title of Mike Ward's report in today's Austin American-Statesman.  It's subtitled, "Increased costs due to new execution drug."

As Texas prison officials face the likelihood that one of the three drugs used in the nation's busiest execution chamber might no longer be available, they are facing another reality: The cost of executions is skyrocketing as well.

A year ago, it cost the Texas Department of Criminal Justice $83.35 to carry out an execution. But since the state was forced to switch from one powerful sedative to another, the cost is now $1,286.86.

That means that the 12 executions carried out so far with the new drug have cost taxpayers more than $15,400, instead of $1,000.

"The cost of all three drugs has gone up, but the overall increase is because of pentobarbital," Jason Clark, a spokesman for the corrections agency, said Thursday.

Nearly a year ago, in March, the state replaced sodium thiopental with pentobarbital in its three-drug execution cocktail after the maker of sodium thiopental stopped producing it amid international protests over its use in executions in the United States.

Now, the state faces the same dilemma again, after the manufacturer of pentobarbital said it will seek to block its use for executions.

Although Texas prison officials say they have enough of the drug to carry out the five executions scheduled so far this year, they are not discussing any details concerning their suppliers or exactly how much of the drug they have on hand — or even what they plan to do next.

And:

Texas officials are increasingly reluctant to publicly discuss most aspects of the execution process for fear of driving up the costs further or impairing their drug supply.

"We can't comment on that," Clark said several times when asked for more details, even those that a year ago were public.

Texas prison officials are seeking a ruling from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to allow them to keep secret many details about execution drugs, where they come from, even how much they cost.

Corrections officials in Texas and other states are saying little about what other drug they might switch to, if the supply of pentobarbital dries up. But propofol is frequently mentioned in private conversations.

That is the powerful sedative that was blamed in the death of entertainer Michael Jackson in June 2009.

"Lethal injection drugs harder and harder to find," is Rina Palta's report for California public radio station KALW-TM.

For the second time in as many years, a drug commonly used in executions will become unavailable.

Word’s come out that pentobarbital, a barbituate several states use in lethal injections, will be much harder to find shortly, as the sole FDA-approved manufacturer of the drug is refusing to sell it to states that use it for executions. Pentobarbital, incidentally, became widely adopted just last year as a replacement for sodium thiopental, which was recently discontinued by its US maker.

And:

States using pentobarbital in executions include Oklahoma, Florida, Ohio, and Texas. California, meanwhile, has a stockpile of  sodium thiopental, which expires in 2014. California obtained its supply from a company in the United Kingdom. European countries have since prohibited companies from selling the drug to US states seeking to use it to carry out the death penalty.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link; news from Oklahoma is also available.

Related posts are in the lethal injection, international, and TDCJ indexes.

Texas' Lethal Injection Stock

 Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Prisons running low on execution drugs again, but prison agency withholds details."  It's by Mike Ward.

A new report surfaced on Tuesday that Texas again might be running out of a key drug used to execute its condemned criminals, but state prison officials said that they have enough to carry out the next six scheduled executions.

What happens after that might be anyone's guess, thanks to a new no-disclosure policy imposed by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on details about the execution drugs.

Two years ago, the prison system revealed its drug supplier and the amount of drugs on hand after Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion saying it was public information. The prison system had sought to keep the information secret, arguing that releasing details about the drug supply might trigger violent protests outside the execution chamber or embolden death penalty opponents.

Prison system spokesman Jason Clark said Tuesday that the agency is seeking another opinion from the attorney general on the execution drug information "because the law has changed and due to changing circumstances."

Specifically, Clark said, a state Supreme Court ruling last July could have changed the situation. The case, filed by the Austin American-Statesman and other newspapers, sought travel vouchers for the governor's security detail under the Texas Public Information Act.

In that case, the Supreme Court ruled, for the first time, that safety concerns might trump laws mandating public disclosure of information that reveals how a government spends taxpayer money.

Texas operates the busiest death chamber in the United States, executing more than twice as many prisoners last year as any other state — 13 in all. Its execution practices have made it a target of death penalty opponents for years.

The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported Tuesday that Texas has only enough pentobarbital on hand to complete six executions "and may be incapable of carrying out further death sentences after June."

And:

Texas faced the same problem 13 months ago, when the sole U.S. manufacturer of the sedative sodium thiopental permanently halted production after authorities in Italy, where it was made, demanded a guarantee that it would not be used in executions — a promise the company said it could not give.

The Guardian report is, "Texas executions threatened as stocks of death penalty drug run low," by Ed Pilkington writing in New York.

The dwindling supplies in the nation's most prolific death penalty state underline the crisis that is sweeping the 34 states that still have the death sentence on their books. Last summer, Lundbeck, the Danish company that makes pentobarbital under the trademark Nembutal, placed strict restrictions on its distribution to prevent it falling into the hands of US executioners.

Georgia, the state that caused outrage in September when it put to death Troy Davis despite considerable doubts about his guilt, is also running low on stocks of the drug it used to kill him. It has only enough pentobarbital to kill four more prisoners – the same number of executions as it carried out in 2011.

The severity of America's lethal injection drought has been uncovered by the human rights group Reprieve. Using freedom of information appeals, its investigator Maya Foa has calculated the remaining stocks in Texas and Georgia of pentobarbital, a barbiturate used to put prisoners to sleep before they are administered a separate drug to stop their heart.

Her calculations show that Texas has 27 vials of Nembutal left in its stocks, with each vial containing 2.5g of the sedative. The state needs two vials to inject into each condemned prisoner, and a further two as a back-up in case of problems with the first, as outlined in its official execution procedures.

That is sufficient for 6.75 executions.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice declined to confirm how much pentobarbital it had in its stores, saying it was seeking to keep the quantity secret "for security reasons".

Similarly, Georgia has 17 vials of pentobarbital left, Reprieve has calculated – just over four executions' worth.

"These shows that the restrictions on sale of medical drugs to US corrections departments are starting to bite. States that practice the death penalty are now reaching a desperate situation," Foa said.

"It's getting harder and harder for them to get hold of these drugs and eventually they will be forced to recognise that medicines should not be used to execute people."

Difficulties over lethal injections has already put a halt to executions in several other states. California has a moratorium in place until at least 2013 as a result of legal wrangling over the procedure, while Ohio has also been forced to put its executions on hold because it was found by the courts to be straying from its own protocols in administering the drugs.

The question hanging over death rows across the country is what happens when states like Texas run dry of pentobarbital. Will they move on to a new alternative sedative in the hope of bypassing restrictions on sales of the medicines, or will they try to procure Nembutal through circuitous routes?

Legitimate channels through which the drug can be obtained are fast closing. A ban has been imposed since last December across the European Union on selling the constituent parts of the lethal injection to US prisons.

The UK's Telegraph has, "Drug shortage threatens Texas death sentences," by Amy Willis, reporting from Los Angeles.

The drug shortage means the state, the powerhouse of judicial killings in the US, is only able to carry out its scheduled executions until June, human rights group Reprieve has calculated.

Reprieve said Georgia is also suffering a supply crisis with only 17 vials of pentobarbital remaining.

Six executions are scheduled in Texas over the next four months but beyond that quantities of pentobarbital, one of three drugs needed to carry out the lethal punishments, will no longer be sufficient.

Texan officials refused to confirm any shortages of the drug citing “security reasons”.

Earlier coverage of the Texas drug switch and TDCJ secrecy is at the links.  Related posts are in the lethal injection, international, and TDCJ indexes.

Arizona's Dirty Secret: Executions

That's the title of E.J. Montini's column in today's Arizona Republic.

The Arizona Republic's Michael Kiefer reported serious problems with how the DOC got the drugs used in executions. Also, proper background checks were not done on members of the execution team.

And the team member who was administering IVs was a DOC employee who got his training in the military, although he wasn't a licensed medical professional and he hadn't been in the service since 1996.

Meantime, the doctor who served as the team's leader (a doctor must be present at executions) called the court experience "very unpleasant" and, according to court records, said, "It's not really anything that I care to go through again."

We don't know if that means he quit. The Department of Corrections isn't saying, although there are executions scheduled for the coming months.

There is a lot of secrecy surrounding executions in Arizona and, again, I can't imagine why.

First, there is a state law that protects the privacy of the execution team. It reads in part: "The identity of executioners and other persons who participate or perform ancillary functions in an execution and any information contained in records that would identify those persons is confidential and is not subject to disclosure."

Why? Executions are legal. The public approves of them. Why should we not know who performs what Arizona deems to be a public service?

Besides, the law also declares that any professional who participates in an execution and happens to be licensed by a board -- for example, a physician -- cannot have his or her license suspended or revoked.

So, why not know who they are? Particularly since we are said to pay the leader of our "execution team" about $6,000 a day, with the average execution requiring two days of practice and one day to carry out the death sentence.

Earlier coverage of Arizona lethal injection issues begins at the link.

The Morton Case

"Morton lawyers press for inquiry of former district attorney," is Chuck Lindell's Austin American-Statesman report.

Dismissing former prosecutor Ken Anderson's defense as strained, feeble and outrageous, lawyers for Michael Morton renewed calls Wednesday for a special court to examine allegations that Anderson intentionally hid evidence to ensure Morton's conviction for a murder he did not commit.

Anderson denied any wrongdoing in a strongly worded court brief, filed two weeks ago, that accused Morton's lawyers of building their accusation around falsehoods, incomplete facts and an incorrect reading of trial records.

And:

Morton's lawyers again asked state District Judge Sid Harle to seek a court of inquiry to examine whether Anderson broke Texas law and should be held in contempt of court for his actions during Morton's trial.

Courts of inquiry are led by an appointed district judge who can subpoena and question witnesses to determine if state laws were broken.

Although Anderson could not be punished if the court concluded he acted improperly, such a finding could result in criminal charges later and have a wider-ranging impact, the Morton brief said.

"Mr. Anderson's conduct in prosecuting the Morton case bears directly on his fitness and character to be a judge in this state," the brief said. A court finding could be used in disciplinary proceedings before the State Bar of Texas and "provide significant information to the voters of Williamson County when he stands for re-election," the brief added.

Anderson's current term ends in 2014.

Earlier coverage of Michael Morton's exoneration and search for causes of his wrongful conviction.

Michael Morton Case Update

Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Depositions shed light on Morton prosecution."  It's by Chuck Lindell.

Lawyers for Michael Morton, recently freed from a life sentence for a murder he did not commit, have accused former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson of deliberately hiding evidence to secure a guilty verdict 25 years ago.

Newly released court records, including transcripts of sworn testimony provided last month by Anderson's trial assistant, show how Morton's legal team intends to bolster that accusation.

Mike Davis, a Round Rock lawyer who helped Anderson prosecute Morton for the murder of his wife, Christine, described his former boss as a "control guy" — a detail-oriented district attorney who took part in every facet of a major case, from the investigation by law enforcement to the strategy used at trial.

"Any murder case was Ken Anderson's baby," Davis said in his Oct. 29 deposition under questioning by Morton lawyer Gerry Goldstein.

Anderson, now a state district judge in Georgetown, would have determined what information had to be turned over to Morton's lawyers before trial, Davis said, adding that he was "shocked" to discover this year that certain evidence had not been provided.

Davis said he was particularly troubled to learn that Morton's lawyers did not receive evidence indicating that there was a witness to Christine Morton's murder — her 3-year-old son, Eric, who described the attacker as a monster who was not his father.

That information, contained in a taped and transcribed phone conversation between Christine Morton's mother and the lead sheriff's investigator, Sgt. Don Wood, was provided to Morton's lawyers in 2008 as part of a request under Texas open records laws. The sheriff's office and district attorney's office had fought the request.

Before Morton's trial, defense lawyers made the standard request for all evidence favorable to their client, but Anderson should have provided the conversation transcript without being asked, Davis said. Prosecutors are legally required to disclose evidence that could help a defendant, he said.

"Former Assistant DA Deflects Blame In Morton Case," is the title of Brandi Grissom's Texas Tribune post.

In a deposition made public Tuesday, Mike Davis, a former assistant district attorney in Williamson County, pointed the finger for any alleged wrongdoing that led to the prosecution of Michael Morton directly at his former boss, Ken Anderson.

Davis provided testimony Oct. 29 as part of an ongoing investigation by defense lawyers into whether Williamson County officials intentionally withheld information that could have prevented Morton's 1987 murder conviction and life sentence in the killing of his wife, Christine Morton. According to the transcript, a representative of the State Bar of Texas also attended the Davis deposition. That agency is also investigating allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the Morton case.

And:

The transcript and other information, Davis said, should have been turned over to the judge and to Morton's attorneys. When he learned about the DNA evidence that exonerated Morton, Davis said he went to Anderson's office and confronted him about whether he had concealed the transcript outlining details of the attack young Eric Morton witnessed. "And he says, 'We turned it over,'" Davis said.

Davis also described a scene that unfolded in the Williamson County courthouse on the day that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals exonerated Morton. Davis was in Anderson's courtroom, and he said current District Attorney John Bradley arrived and insisted on a meeting with Davis and Anderson in a back room. Anderson wanted to meet with Bradley alone, Davis said, and the two went into a separate room. "And Judge Anderson and Mr. Bradley had a discussion which was pretty loud," Davis said. "I could hear raised voices, but I couldn't tell what they were saying."

Davis contended he had no knowledge that anything was withheld from Morton's lawyers, and that he was disturbed to learn that information was allegedly supressed. "It troubles me greatly," Davis said.

The transcript of Anderson's deposition, which was conducted last week, is expected to be released soon.

The Tribune has also published the transcripts of the Davis deposition, the deposition of former Williamson County Deputy Sheriff Donald Wood, and a statement by Dr. Roberto Bayardo.

Earlier coverage of Michael Morton's exoneration begins at the link. 

The responsibility of the state to provide exculpatory evidence to the defense was articulated in the 1963 Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland; more via Oyez.

The Latest News Coverage of Michael Morton's Exoneration

"Prosecutor misdeeds may have let killer kill again," is the title of Will Weissert's AP report.  It's via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Caitlin Baker was 3 when her mother, Debra, was beaten to death and left naked in bed in her Austin home. Although the pain of the loss has faded in the 23 years since, her anger that her mother's killer was never caught has not.

Less than two years before that January 1988 slaying, unbeknownst to all but a few people until recently, the mother of another woman bludgeoned to death in bed during an attack at her home about 15 miles away told an investigator that her 3-year-old grandson watched a "monster" do the killing, not his father, as police suspected. She urged him to pursue other leads, but her daughter's husband, Michael Morton, was instead convicted of murder and sentenced to life.

New DNA testing linked the killings of Debra Baker and Christine Morton to another man with a prison record in several states. Police have not publicly identified the suspect, whom they are trying to locate, but his genetic links to both slayings led to Morton's release from prison last week after nearly 25 years behind bars, and his formal exoneration by an appeals court on Wednesday.

But lawyers for the Innocence Project, a New York-based group that spent years fighting for DNA testing in Morton's case and the release of his police case files, say he likely never would have been convicted if the prosecutor in charge of the case hadn't withheld key evidence from the defense, including his mother-in-law's statements. And if, as the lawyers contend, investigators disregarded and hid evidence that cast doubt on Morton's guilt, could they have more doggedly pursued leads that might have helped them prevent Baker's killing?

In filings before state District Judge Sid Harle, the Innocence Project has alleged misconduct by Ken Anderson, now a sitting judge in Williamson County just north of Austin, who was the county's district attorney at the time, and prosecuted Morton's case. The charges could lead to the state bar taking disciplinary action against Anderson, or Harle himself possibly urging state and federal prosecutors to investigate, said Barry Scheck, the Innocence Project's co-founder.

"I think everybody can see how offensive this conduct is, if true," Scheck said. "I am profoundly troubled by this. Profoundly troubled, and determined to get answers."

At Time, "In Perry’s Texas, a Well-Connected DA with a Knack for Blocking New Evidence," is the title of Mark Benjamin's post.

Michael Morton faced a throng of reporters last Tuesday just after a Texas judge freed him following 25 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Now gray-haired and 57, Morton looked on the bright side. “I thank God that this was not a capital case,” he said.

In the final years of a legal battle spanning more than two decades, attorneys at the New York-based Innocence Project fought for DNA testing that ultimately exonerated Morton in the murder of his wife and pried loose exculpatory information from Texas government files that officials had withheld from Morton’s attorneys since before his 1987 trial.

These efforts probably would have sprung Morton from prison years ago were it not for the role of Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, a well-connected ally of Texas Governor Rick Perry, who fought tenaciously for six years to keep Morton behind bars. Twice a Perry appointee to influential legal posts, Bradley has generated controversy in his handling of two high-profile cases: Morton’s incarceration and the forensic review of evidence against Cameron Todd Willingham, a man who was executed in 2004 despite a cloud of uncertainty around the expert testimony that led to his conviction.

In early 2005, Morton’s attorneys sought DNA testing on a blood-stained bandana found outside the Morton home on the day after the brutal murder, which took place on Aug. 13, 1986. Court records show that Bradley, who was appointed by Perry in 2001 and was not Morton’s original prosecutor, sought to prevent that testing from ever taking place and tried to limit its effect on the case.

At first, Bradley argued that testing the bandana would open the floodgates to an indeterminable amount of new evidence. “One has to wonder whether petitioner would file another motion at some future date seeking additional testing of even more items,” he wrote in October of 2005. In a 2009 filing, Bradley argued that the bandana was irrelevant because it was found “a football field’s length” from the Morton’s house, and that if any DNA testing did take place “it should not incorporate the possibility of a match of any DNA profile recovered from the bandana to a known offender.

District attorneys vary widely in their willingness to consider new evidence, but Bradley’s efforts make him an outlier. The Innocence Project says it has to fight a prosecutor’s objections to DNA testing in less than half of its cases, and most resistance dries up quickly. Death penalty opponents are particularly critical of prosecutors who resist DNA testing. Steve Hall, director of the StandDown Texas project, called Bradley’s behavior in the Morton case “abhorrent.”

"Texas man jailed 25 years for murder is exonerated," by Molly Hennessy-Fiske for the Los Angeles Times, via the Sacramento Bee.

Morton has been staying with his parents in East Texas since his release. Nina Morrison, an Innocence Project lawyer, told the Times that she called Morton on Wednesday to tell him about the ruling.

"He's thrilled and relieved and looking forward to the next chapter in his life, but also still determined to get to the bottom of how and why he was wrongfully convicted in the first place and make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else," Morrison said. "There's still a lot of unanswered questions and he very much wants answers."

Chuck Lindell, who broke the story of the tangled case in mid-August writes, "Court affirms Morton's innocence," for today's Austin American-Statesman.

Wednesday's ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals qualified Morton for compensation from Texas — $80,000 for each year he was wrongly imprisoned, or about $2 million, with another $2 million annuity that would earn 5 percent interest and pay out monthly.

But the rapid ruling may jeopardize Morton's plans to pursue evidence supporting allegations that then-prosecutor Ken Anderson, now a district judge, improperly suppressed pretrial evidence that pointed to Morton's innocence. Defense lawyers also accused sheriff's investigators of ignoring leads that could have solved Christine Morton's murder.

Under an agreement reached last week with Bradley, Morton's lawyers were given a chance to conduct a limited investigation into the allegations of misconduct — but only until the appeals court ruled on Morton's innocence claim.

Defense lawyers believe they have until Nov. 7 to complete that investigation because appellate court rulings do not become final until a mandate issued 25 days after a ruling is announced.

"I am confident we will find a way to get it done in the next (month), if not after," Morrison said, providing no details because District Judge Sid Harle placed the investigation agreement under seal in court files.

But if defense lawyers hope to force Anderson and others to answer questions under oath, they may have trouble convincing Harle to order the depositions.

The claims of official misconduct were included in the same petition that urged the appeals court to declare Morton innocent. Now that appellate judges have established Morton's innocence, the petition is disposed of and the remaining claims are considered moot.

Bradley declined to comment on the defense-led investigation, citing the sealed court records.

And:

John Raley, a Houston civil lawyer who has represented Morton for free since 2005, said Morton is considering additional schooling after earning a master's degree in literature from the University of Houston while in prison.

"He said something about Shakespeare during one of our phone calls years ago," Raley said. "So I sent him the complete works of Shakespeare, and he was thrilled."

Their letters and conversations, Raley said, are frequently sprinkled with Shakespearean quotes and references to literary works by John Milton and others.

Beyond suddenly having a future to plan, however, Morton is still adapting to life outside prison, Raley said.

"All of the everyday things people take for granted, Michael thinks are wonderful. This is a brave new world for him," Raley said.

Earlier coverage of Michael Morton's exoneration begins with the preceding post.

Latest Developments in the Michael Morton Case

Brandi Grissom writes "Inmate’s Release Brings Call for New Evidence Law," for the New York Times in its Sunday edition with expanded Texas coverage.  The Texas Tribune version is, "Morton Case Sparks Calls for Texas Evidence Law Reform."  Here's an extended excerpt:

Days after Mrs. Morton’s badly beaten body was found in her bed in August 1986, someone used her credit card in another city. And a check was cashed with her forged signature.

The sheriff’s investigators who saw Mr. Morton as the prime suspect had that information and a transcript of the grandmother’s call. But when he was on trial facing a life sentence for murder, his defense lawyers knew none of it.

A quarter-century later, after six years of fighting for DNA tests that now almost certainly will result in the reversal of Mr. Morton’s conviction, his lawyers say prosecutors withheld this and other exculpatory evidence from his original defense lawyers and from the trial judge despite orders to turn it over. In court filings, the prosecutors have denied accusations of wrongdoing.

Since 1994, DNA tests have exonerated 44 Texas inmates, according to the Innocence Project of Texas, based in Lubbock. In the wake of those cases, Texas lawmakers have made significant reforms to criminal justice procedures to help prevent wrongful convictions. But defense lawyers and Mr. Morton’s advocates argue that under antiquated Texas discovery laws, the alleged injustices that robbed him of 25 years could still happen.

“Michael’s struggle would be in vain if we didn’t think soberly about what went wrong in his case and how it can be fixed,” said Nina Morrison, senior staff lawyer for the Innocence Project, which worked on Mr. Morton’s case and which is based in New York.

The landmark 1963 United States Supreme Court decision Brady v. Maryland requires prosecutors to provide defendants with exculpatory evidence — information that could prove their innocence. But Texas law does not define “exculpatory evidence,” and there is no statewide standard; prosecutors or trial judges typically decide what qualifies. State law does not require prosecutors to automatically share with defense lawyers even basic information like police reports and witness statements.

Many prosecutors, including district attorneys in Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and Austin, have adopted open-file policies that require their lawyers to share all their evidence with the defense.

Tarrant County adopted its policy in the 1970s, said Jack Strickland, a former defense lawyer who is deputy chief in the district attorney’s criminal division.

“The more serious the case, the more serious the potential consequences,” Mr. Strickland said. “We wanted to have as much transparency as we could because of the stakes involved.”

In 2010, the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel, a committee created to recommend new laws that might prevent wrongful convictions, urged legislators to adopt a mandatory statewide discovery policy. Seven of Texas’ first 39 DNA exonerations involved evidence suppression or other prosecutorial misconduct, according to the panel’s report.

The panel — named after a Lubbock man charged with rape who died in prison before DNA evidence exonerated him — told lawmakers that Texas should follow the example of other states that require lawyers on both sides to share information in criminal cases.

“We have 254 counties in this state, and potentially 254 ways of deciding what the defense will see prior to trial,” said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service and a member of the Tim Cole panel.

Since 2007, lawmakers have proposed more than a half-dozen measures that would have expanded access to discovery. None have passed.

"Michael Morton's lawyers aim to prove misconduct," is Chuck Lindell's latest Austin American-Statesman report.

While Michael Morton begins rebuilding a life after almost 25 years in prison, his lawyers are moving forward on phase two of their quest for justice: looking into the investigators and prosecutors whose efforts sent him to prison for a murder he did not commit.

Angered by revelations of hidden evidence and apparently ignored leads that could have saved Morton from a wrongful conviction, defense lawyers have promised to conduct a vigorous investigation in the coming weeks.

Details of how that investigation will proceed remain hidden behind sealed court records, but presumably Morton's lawyers will seek to force onetime District Attorney Ken Anderson, now a district judge, and other former Williamson County officials to testify under oath in depositions.

Any new information unearthed would be added to allegations of official misconduct that are pending at the state's highest criminal court.

And:

Innocence Project lawyers received the transcript in 2008 under Texas open records laws over objections from the sheriff's office and Bradley. They also found a summary of the telephone transcript in a district attorney case file marked "trial documents," said John Raley, a Houston civil lawyer who has been working on Morton's behalf since 2005.

Morton's lawyers argue that withholding the transcript violated the U.S. Constitution by trampling Morton's right to fair treatment by the legal system and his right to view prosecution evidence that could cast doubt on his guilt.

Defense lawyers also say that Anderson and investigators violated the trial judge's order to turn over all of Wood's reports and field notes.

Before the 1987 trial, District Judge William Lott announced that he would review the material to make sure no exculpatory evidence was improperly withheld from Morton. Anderson assured Lott that he would meet with Wood to ensure that all relevant investigatory material would be provided, trial transcripts show.

After reviewing the documents, Lott announced that he had found no hidden evidence and then sealed the file for review by an appeals court.

That sealed file, opened in August, contained only a five-page report detailing the first day of Wood's investigation and a one-page form, signed by Morton, allowing his house and pickup to be searched. None of the four recently revealed documents, all of which were generated by Wood or copied to the sergeant, was included.

"Trial prosecutors' deliberate failure to produce the Wood documents was a knowing and egregious violation of Morton's due process rights and renders his trial fundamentally unfair," Morton's lawyers said in court briefs.

Anderson did not return calls seeking comment.

Earlier coverage of Michael Morton's case begins with the preceding post.

The responsibility of the state to provide exculpatory evidence to the defense was articulated in the 1963 Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland; more via Oyez.  Related posts are in the prosecutorial misconduct index.

Commentary on the Michael Morton Case

Let begin with editorials from the Austin American-Statesman and the Dallas Morning News.  The Statesman editorial is, "Morton free; now State Bar must act."

While Michael Morton begins rebuilding a life after almost 25 years in prison, his lawyers are moving forward on phase two of their quest for justice: looking into the investigators and prosecutors whose efforts sent him to prison for a murder he did not commit.

Angered by revelations of hidden evidence and apparently ignored leads that could have saved Morton from a wrongful conviction, defense lawyers have promised to conduct a vigorous investigation in the coming weeks.

Details of how that investigation will proceed remain hidden behind sealed court records, but presumably Morton's lawyers will seek to force onetime District Attorney Ken Anderson, now a district judge, and other former Williamson County officials to testify under oath in depositions.

Any new information unearthed would be added to allegations of official misconduct that are pending at the state's highest criminal court.

And:

The new DNA evidence prompted Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley to join Scheck in asking the courts to throw out Morton's conviction. That request is pending at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which must approve all sentences that are vacated based on actual innocence.

But defense lawyers also informed the appeals court that in the unlikely event that Morton's request is denied, they will pursue allegations of official misconduct as a second path to attack his conviction.

To further develop those allegations, Morton's lawyers and Bradley agreed to allow "limited discovery," a legal process by which information is collected or exchanged. Details about the discovery plan are hidden in sealed files, except for one: If the appeals court agrees to throw out Morton's conviction, the time for discovery ends, and the allegations of misconduct "shall remain unresolved," court records show.

The appeals court has no deadline to issue its ruling but has acted on actual innocence requests as quickly as about one month, adding a sense of urgency to Morton's legal team.

"Those are serious matters," said Gerry Goldstein, one of the state's leading criminal defense lawyers whose San Antonio firm joined Morton's cause earlier this year. "We are pursuing those. I can't discuss exactly how, but you can trust us that these will be pursued vigorously."

Bradley, district attorney for the past 10 years, said he will have a role in the investigation, though he also declined to provide details, noting that the agreement is under seal.

Bradley said his association with Anderson — the two are friends who have co-written several legal books, including one still offered for sale — will not influence his actions.

Today's Dallas Morning News carries the editorial, "In murder exoneration, a revived debate."

The grotesque injustice suffered by Michael Morton of Williamson County was a travesty — nearly 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

But, he pointed out after gaining his freedom based on DNA evidence, the travesty could have ended in tragedy.

“I thank God this wasn’t a capital case,” Morton said last week. “I only had life.”

That’s the essential argument for not adding to the list of 475 executions that have been carried out in Texas since 1982. Even well-meaning officials and juries too often have gotten it terribly wrong. The inevitable damage needs to be minimized, and substituting life in prison for the irrevocable death penalty is one fundamental way.

And:

Morton is the 45th Texas man whose conviction unraveled in the face of modern DNA tests, according to the New York-based Innocence Project. Morton’s case is one of a handful that involved murder, and it wasn’t prosecuted as a capital crime.

But Texas’ death row has not been immune from error. For the most recent, witness the fabricated case against Anthony Graves in the sensational murders of six in Burleson County, a conviction that unraveled last year because justice officials smelled the stench of injustice and bothered to find the source. It was in the office of a scheming former DA.

Morton left the courthouse last week with a judge’s apology ringing in his ears: “You do have my sympathies,” he said.

What a tragedy it would be if, some day, a judge were able to deliver those words only in memoriam.

Houston Chronicle columnist Patricia Kilday Hart writes, "Truth finally sets Texas inmate free."

For a man who'd spent more than 20 years locked up in a Texas prison, the offer must have been tantalizing: Admit your guilt, express remorse, and we'll set you free.

He'd grown gray since Williamson County prosecutors convinced a jury that he'd committed the monstrous murder of his wife, his college sweetheart. For two decades, he'd existed behind bars while his son, only 3 when both parents were stolen from him, became a man without him.

Michael Morton had been stripped of every single thing he held dear in this life - except the truth. Though it would cost him several more years in prison, no one, he decided, would make him tell a lie. He'd rot in prison rather than surrender that last fragile connection to his dignity.

Wednesday, finally cleared by DNA testing after 25 years in prison, Morton became a free man on his own terms: Exonerated.

And:

The district attorney at the time, Ken Anderson, is a now a Williamson County judge. Prosecutor Mike Davis is in private practice in Round Rock. Bradley, who was not involved with the original prosecution but fought Morton's right to obtain DNA testing, serves as district attorney.

This week, Bradley said he believed testing the bandana was unnecessary because law enforcement officials had not deemed it significant in their investigation. He admitted to me last week that judgment was wrong.

It was wrong, and not just because the evidence proved to be so illuminating. It was wrong because Bradley's duty as a prosecutor isn't to team up with law enforcement; it's to see that justice is done.

Last week, we saw the triumph of a man who believed the truth would set him free - as an unbroken man.

I hope, in the months ahead, we'll see the truly guilty held accountable, and find out how to prevent such a travesty of justice from occurring again.

Earlier coverage of Michael Morton's case begins at the link; the latest news coverage in the next post.

More Details on the Morton Case Review

Brandi Grissom posts, "DNA Test May Tie Morton Case to 1988 Killing," at the Texas Tribune.

Travis County authorities are investigating an unsolved 1988 Austin murder that they suspect is related to the 1986 murder of Christine Morton, for which her husband, Michael Morton, has been in prison for 25 years.

The developments could bolster efforts to exonerate Morton — who has steadfastly maintained his innocence — and help solve the mysterious killing of Debra Jan Baker, which has haunted her daughter, Caitlin Baker, nearly her entire life. She was 3 years old when her mother was bludgeoned to death in her bed.

“I’m happier for Michael Morton at this point,” Caitlin Baker told The Texas Tribune. “If it helps him, that would be even better.”

It could also have potentially serious ramifications for Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, the former head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Appointed to the panel by Gov. Rick Perry, Bradley was critical of efforts to examine questions about the arson science used to convict Cameron Todd Willingham in the 1991 deaths of his three daughters. Willingham was executed in 2004.

And:

Neither Morton’s attorneys nor the district attorneys in Travis and Williamson counties would confirm a connection between the two cases or discuss the Baker investigation. But Caitlin Baker said a detective in the Austin Police Department cold case unit told her Tuesday that authorities are investigating a potential connection between the two crimes.

Debra Jan Baker's body was discovered on Jan. 13, 1988, in her north Austin home, about 12 miles from where Morton's body was found about a year and a half earlier. Initially, police focused on Baker’s estranged husband, Phillip Baker. But Phillip, who at the time worked at the local jail, said in an interview that the police eliminated him as a suspect.

Caitlin Baker, now 27, has pursued her mother's killer for years, begging Austin police and anyone else who might know what happened to share with her information about the murder. In 2005, she sent a letter to the Austin Chronicle, pleading for help from the public. “There must be someone with information regarding her death. We have not given up hope,” she wrote.

Over the years, the police were in occasional contact — Baker said she met with cold case detectives about four years ago and police took DNA samples from other relatives — but her mother's murder has remained unsolved.

Then, about three weeks ago, she said, the police returned, asking again about her mother’s death. Phillip Baker said police came to his home and showed him photos of two men, neither of whom he said he recognized. Caitlin Baker said police also spoke with her aunts and an uncle in Sugar Land. When Caitlin Baker asked Tuesday if the renewed interest in her mother’s case was related to the Morton murder and recently discovered DNA, an officer told her it was.

“They are definitely looking into that, but they couldn’t share any details,” she said. “I’m happy that there could be something.”

If DNA evidence from Debra Baker’s murderer is linked to the sample taken from the Morton bandana — as was implied at Monday’s court hearing — it could have momentous implications for Michael Morton and for Williamson County DA Bradley.

Earlier coverage of Michael Morton's case begins at the link.

An Update on the Michael Morton Case

"Travis County May Hold Key to Solving Morton Murder," is the title of Brandi Grissom's Texas Tribune report.

Travis County prosecutors on Monday provided “powerful evidence” to a Williamson County district court that could be crucial in exonerating Michael Morton of the 1986 murder of his wife.

“I would assume that this information would take away any concerns whatsoever” about Morton’s innocence, said his attorney, John Raley, of Houston, who has been working on the case since 2003. In 1987, Morton was convicted of killing his wife, Christine Morton, in their Williamson County home and sentenced to life in prison.

At a hearing on Monday, Bexar County District Judge Sid Harle presented Morton’s lawyers and lawyers from District Attorney John Bradley’s office with new information from a case pending in Travis County. Because the case is pending, the judge and attorneys would not reveal the nature of the information or the names of individuals involved. But the information seemed to reinforce evidence Morton’s lawyers say shows that he is innocent.

Travis County assistant district attorney Buddy Meyer said his office would not comment on the information.

And:

“This is very powerful evidence your honor. Wow,” said Raley, adding that his client should be immediately released from prison based on the discovery. He said he expected the Williamson County district attorney's office to assist in preparing court filings indicating that Morton is innocent of murder.

But lawyers for Bradley's office said they wanted a hearing to further develop the information. “I think there are still issues that need to be resolved,” said Lindsay Roberts, first assistant district attorney.

At Morton's original trial, prosecutors told jurors that he bludgeoned his wife to death because he was upset that she had fallen asleep instead of having sex with him the previous night after celebrating hisbirthday.

Last month, Morton’s lawyers with the New York-based Innocence Project announced that they had discovered DNA on a bandana found near the crime scene that excluded him as his wife’s killer. The DNA, they said, belongs to a felon who is not in custody.

"Mystery filing could bolster prisoner's innocence," is the Austin American-Statesman coverage by Chuck Lindell.

Travis County prosecutors dropped a bombshell on the Michael Morton murder case on Monday: a sealed, two-page file detailing a pending investigation that apparently bolsters Morton's claim that he was wrongly convicted almost 25 years ago.

District Judge Sid Harle gave the sealed file — apparently detailing an investigation of a cold case murder from the 1980s — to prosecutors and defense lawyers during a Monday afternoon hearing on the Morton case, then he adjourned to give both sides time to read it.

When the hearing resumed, defense lawyer John Raley said the new information suggests that Morton should be immediately released from prison, where he is serving a life term for the 1986 murder of his wife, Christine Morton.

And:

Information about the Travis County cold case overshadowed the original intent of Monday's hearing: Harle's order to allow defense lawyers to review the Morton case files from the sheriff's office and district attorney.

Raley said the files revealed information that suggests prosecutors hid a key piece of evidence that could have raised questions about Morton's guilt — a transcript of a police interview with Christine Morton's mother. That conversation, taped by police 11 days after the murder, revealed that the Mortons' 3-year-old son said that he saw a "monster" hurting his mother and that his father was not home at the time of the attack.

Defense lawyers didn't learn of the transcript until 2008, when it was provided by the sheriff's office under Texas open records laws.

On Monday, Raley said he found a summary of the transcript in the district attorney's files. The information gives Morton a second avenue on appeal — a violation of his constitutional right to view evidence that could cast doubt on his guilt — if his innocence claim bogs down, Raley said.

Harle scheduled a follow-up hearing for Oct. 3.

Earlier coverage of Matthew Morton's case begins at the link.

Arizona and the DEA

The Arizona Republic reports, "E-mails detail FDA’s efforts to avoid responsibility regarding execution drug.  It's written by Michael Kiefer with additional reporting by JJ Hensley and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez.

In late September 2010, the Arizona Department of Corrections obtained the drug sodium thiopental from a small pharmaceutical supply house in London to carry out an execution by lethal injection in October.

The supply house was not registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to export the drug, nor was the drug approved by FDA, but FDA officials in Phoenix nonetheless allowed the drug into the country.

Though the Corrections Department fought hard in court to keep the source of the drug secret, days before the October execution was carried out, The Arizona Republic learned that it had been imported from England.

From documents obtained this week from the FDA under the Freedom of Information Act, The Republic has learned that the revelation touched off inquiries into how the drug made it to Arizona and other states that had already been importing it from England and elsewhere.

Then, the FDA, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol all consulted with the White House to address questions about the legality of the imports and to justify bending the rules to get it to prisons for executions.

The documents released by the FDA offer an insider’s view of an agency struggling to keep itself from being dragged into the national legal debate over drugs used in state executions. Some of the released documents were supposed to be redacted to conceal certain details, but encryption failed.

Those e-mails show, among other things, that the FDA, with the approval of unnamed persons at the White House, shifted responsibility for allowing the drug’s import to Customs. That was done to avoid legal liability and to shield the FDA from any appearance of involvement with the death penalty.

One high-placed FDA official wrote on Nov. 2 that even if the agency issued a statement that it had not reviewed the drugs for “safety, efficacy or quality . . . it will insert FDA into the death-penalty cases because attorneys will try to use the statement as a means to open proceedings on the safety of the imported drugs.”

By the end of 2010, the FDA officially stated it would “continue to defer to law enforcement on all matters involving lethal injection,” and the e-mails show that it had deferred approval of the drug imports to Customs.

When asked for comment, Shelly Burgess, an FDA spokeswoman, said in an e-mail response, “This involves a matter in litigation and the agency does not comment on matters of litigation.”

Dale Baich of the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Phoenix, one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to force the FDA to police the drug imports, also received the FDA documents whose redactions were visible. He said he declined to review them because of attorney ethical considerations.

“It is hard for me to say because I have not seen the documents,” Baich said. “But it appears that the FDA was concerned, as were we, about how Arizona obtained the drugs. We have alleged the drugs were illegally imported and the FDA fell short in its duty under the law. This information seems to support our claims.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is also suing the FDA for information about thiopental imports, and this week’s FOIA release was partly spurred by the ACLU’s requests.

The FDA meanwhile, asked the federal public defender, the ACLU and The Republic to return the unredacted materials. The Republic declined.

And:

In late June, DEA officials told the Arizona Department of Corrections not to use thiopental in its execution of inmate Donald Beaty. A different drug was used instead and has been used since. It had almost been foretold in a March 16 memo from an FDA attorney.

“I am trying to test a hunch and that hunch is that between bad publicity, lawsuits, and product seizures, there will be less of a desire to bring this product in,” he wrote.

The most recent lethal injection coverage from Arizona begins at the link.  A direct jump to earlier coverage of Arizona's foreign sourced sodium thiopental is also available.  Related posts are in the lethal injection index.

Texas Execution

Texas is scheduled to execute Cleve Foster tonight in Huntsville.  It would beTexas' third execution of 2011.  It would be the state's 467th execution since 1983.

To date, there have been 11 executions in the nation this year; 1,245 post-Furman executions since 1977. 

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

According to TDCJ, six more executions are scheduled in Texas during 2011.

The updated New York Times report is, "In Last-Minute Action, Texas Inmate Disputes Use of Execution Drug," written by Timothy Williams.

For Texas, which executes more prisoners than any other state, Mr. Foster’s case has been complicated by a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, one of three drugs that have typically been used in executions.

The shortage, which has vexed prison authorities in states that permit the death penalty, led Texas to decide to substitute pentobarbital for sodium thiopental. Pentobarbital is a sedative that is often used to euthanize animals and to treat seizures in humans.

At least two states, Oklahoma and Ohio, have executed inmates since December using pentobarbital after running out of sodium thiopental.

And:

Maurie Levin, one of Mr. Foster’s lawyers, said Monday that Texas had failed to adhere to its own administrative rules when it decided to switch to pentobarbital and that it had not properly notified the public of the change.

Mr. Foster’s lawyers also say the state used an invalid federal permit to buy pentobarbital.

“Given the frequency of which we carry out this ultimate act, it should be done in compliance with the law, with transparency and deliberateness and care,” said Ms. Levin, who also teaches at the University of Texas. “It is experimental, a drug that is brand new to lethal injections.”

On Monday, the Third Court of Appeals of Texas upheld a lower court ruling that rejected the defense’s argument, but Mr. Foster’s lawyers said they would take their challenge to the State Supreme Court. Mr. Foster’s lawyers have also asked Gov. Rick Perry for a 30-day reprieve to allow more time to examine evidence.The story of Mr. Foster, a former sergeant first class, has been full of twists since he was arrested in the 2002 murder of Ms. Pal.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports, "Death Row inmate loses two decisions in effort to stop execution."  It written by Melody McDonald.

First, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused a petition to commute his sentence to life.

Later, the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin denied an appeal related to the state's use of a new drug for lethal injection.

The attorneys planned to take the matter to the Texas Supreme Court today. Foster's execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. today in Huntsville.

Foster would be the third condemned Texas prisoner executed this year and the first to be administered the new drug.

Also Monday, Foster's attorneys sent a letter to Gov. Rick Perry, asking for a 30-day reprieve to fully litigate and resolve questions about pentobarbital, the new drug Texas plans to use in Foster's execution.

"The use of pentobarbital as a sedative in the lethal injection process is brand new, and is, for all intents and purposes, experimental," Maurie Levin, one of Foster's attorneys, said in her letter to Perry.

"The requested reprieve is in the interest of all who believe in the importance of open government, and the need for Texas to carry out the ultimate task -- the execution of one of our citizens -- in a dignified and lawful manner."

Mike Ward writes, "Foster denied clemency, seeks reprieve," for the Austin American-Statesman.

Convicted murderer Cleve Foster, facing execution Tuesday for the 2002 slaying of a Sudanese immigrant in Fort Worth, was denied a clemency request today by the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Foster immediately requested a 30-day reprieve from Gov. Rick Perry.

The legal moves came as Foster moved closer to becoming the first convict executed under a new lethal-drug procedure that will substitute pentobarbital for sodium thiopental, which officials are no longer able to obtain in the United States.

Maurie Levin, Foster’s attorney, said additional court appeals are expected.

Earlier coverage begins with editorials noted in the preceding post; More from journalist Raymond Bonner in the next post.

Editorials Condemn Texas Drug Switch Secrecy

Today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram carries the editorial, "Texas' switch in execution drugs warrants proper review."

A state-administered execution isn't supposed to inflict as much pain and horror on the convicted killer as the victim felt.

The system is called "criminal justice," not "revenge and retribution," for a reason.

Texas prison officials need to do more than take Oklahoma's word for it that swapping one of the three drugs used for lethal injections won't increase the procedure's inhumaneness. The state should step back and evaluate the new regimen carefully and independently before conducting more executions.

After all, replacing a death penalty drug isn't like switching to a generic when the pharmacy runs out of, say, a brand-name allergy medicine.

Executions, once carried out, are final; they're meant to be.

Because they are the taking of life in the name of the people of Texas, executions must be conducted according to precisely drawn rules and procedures and as mistake-free as possible.

And:

Whether Foster is guilty or not, as long as Texas employs capital punishment, it's essential that it be carried out according to deliberate rules, not hurriedly to just get it over with. Victims, their relatives and society at large are done no favors by a system that cuts corners.

As Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in 1958, "The basic concept underlying the Eighth Amendment is nothing less than the dignity of man. While the State has the power to punish, the Amendment stands to assure that this power be exercised within the limits of civilized standards."

The Houston Chronicle editorial is, "State secrets: Why are Texas authorities in such a hurry to execute this prisoner?"

Texas inmate Cleve Foster is due to be executed this evening, but we hope that Gov. Rick Perry will grant him the 30-day reprieve his attorneys have requested — not a pardon, not a commutation, just 30 days to answer a lot of troubling questions.

This is not about Foster's guilt or innocence. It's about the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and its unconscionable delays, secrecy and potential illegalities in implementing the first substantive change to its execution protocol since 1982.

And:

Yesterday, Foster's lawyers asked Perry for a 30-day reprieve, citing "serious concerns" at the timing of the decision, which was made "behind closed doors, without public input and with cursory and one-sided consideration of the benefits and risks."

They have ample cause to believe so. As reported by the Texas Tribune, public documents showed that TDCJ officials did not consult medical or pharmaceutical professionals, but relied on news and online accounts of another state's recent use of pentobarbital in making their decision to switch.

Other newly released documents showed that TDCJ's registration number under which execution drugs are purchased — a critical element of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's ability to monitor the purchase and use of controlled substances — is registered to the Huntsville Unit Hospital, which has been closed since 1983.

In a recent letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, co-counsels Maurie Levin and Sandra Babcock argued that these substances are not being received by a hospital, or kept by any medical facilities, but by unauthorized prison personnel. "The potential for abuse is rampant," they wrote.

As the letter states, the requested reprieve "is in the interest of all who believe in the importance of open government."

Earlier coverage begins at the link; updated news coverage in the next post.

State District Judge Rules for Texas in Lethal Injection Challenge

"Judge refuses to invalidate Texas' new execution procedures," is the title of Steven Kreytak's Austin American-Statesman report.

A state district judge in Travis County on Friday refused to invalidate Texas' new procedure for executing murderers after finding that state law allows prison officials to make certain decisions without public scrutiny.

Lawyers for two condemned inmates claim in a lawsuit that in changing one of the drugs administered to kill inmates, officials failed to comply with the Texas Administrative Procedure Act .

That law, they said, compels officials to subject the new procedures to public scrutiny, including public review and comment periods, before they are implemented.

In rejecting the inmates' request for a temporary injunction, Judge Stephen Yelenosky sided with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, whose case was argued by the attorney general's office.

"There's only one way to read this," Yelenosky said. He then quoted the law: "This chapter does not apply to a rule of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that applies to an inmate."

Lawyers Bryce Benjet and Maurie Levin, who represent plaintiffs Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal, argued that the exemption was intended to apply only to prison disciplinary policies and procedures. They said they would appeal to the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin.

Foster is slated for execution Tuesday. Leal, a Mexican citizen, is scheduled for execution July 7.

The AP report is, "Judge denies request to block execution drug," by Jim Vertuno.  It's via the San Angelo Standard-Times.

A Texas judge on Friday refused to block Texas' switch to a new lethal injection drug, denying a condemned man's efforts to delay his execution, which is scheduled for next week.

Immediately after Travis County District Court Judge Stephen Yelenosky handed down his ruling, attorneys for inmate Cleve Foster said they would appeal, likely on Monday.

Foster, 47, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the slaying of a Sudanese woman in Fort Worth in 2002. He would be the first Texas inmate to have pentobarbital used as part of the lethal injection. Pentobarbital is used to euthanize animals.

A nationwide shortage of the sedative sodium thiopental prompted the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to announce last month it was switching drugs.

Foster's attorneys argued that the change violated the Texas Administrative Procedures Act because it requires notice and an opportunity for public comment.

But Yelenosky agreed with Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott's office that state law specifically provides a broad exemption for the prison agency on matters concerning prison inmates, leaving him no jurisdiction to rule in Foster's favor.

Foster's attorneys, Maurie Levin and Bryce Benjet, said they will take their case to the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals.

The case "goes to the heart of open government," said Levin, a University of Texas law professor who represents death row inmate Humberto Leal, who is scheduled for execution July 7.

Brandi Grissom posts, "Judge Denies Death Penalty Drug Challenge," at the Texas Tribune.

Travis County District Court Judge Stephen Yelenosky this afternoon denied the request of two death row inmates to temporarily halt executions with Texas' new lethal injection drug. Lawyers for Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal said they would immediately appeal the judge's decision.

The two inmates sued the state on Tuesday, alleging that the department violated state transparency laws by making in secret the decision to use a new execution drug. Foster is scheduled for execution on Tuesday, and Leal, a Mexican citizen, is scheduled to die July 7. The inmates asked the court to stop Texas from using pentobarbital because they say the state did not abide by the Administrative Procedure Act, which they say requires public input in the process.

But Yelenosky said the Act does not apply to rules the Texas Department of Criminal Justice makes for its inmates. "This court does not have jurisdiction," Yelenosky said.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced on March 16 that it would use pentobarbital in its three-drug cocktail to carry out lethal injections.

Earlier coverage begins at the link.

Lethal Injection Controversies

Brandi Grissom writes, "Controversy Follows New Execution Drug," for today's New York Times.

A decision to change one of the drugs Texas uses for lethal injections in its busy execution chamber has sparked anew the controversy over the state’s death penalty.

Two inmates filed suit this week against the state corrections department over its closed-door decision-making process. Lawyers for the inmates also called for a federal investigation into whether the state had illegally obtained death penalty drugs used in nearly all of the state’s previous 466 executions since 1982. And the sole American manufacturer of the drug that Texas plans to use urged state officials not to use it in executions.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced on March 16 that it would use pentobarbital in its three-drug cocktail to carry out lethal injections. Texas and other states with the death penalty were forced to find a substitute for the anesthetic sodium thiopental when its only American producer, Hospira Inc. of Lake Forest, Ill., announced in January that it would stop selling the drug.

Lawyers for Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal, the two inmates, sued the state on Tuesday, alleging that the department violated state transparency laws by making the drug decision in secret. Mr. Foster is scheduled for execution on Tuesday for the 2002 rape and murder of a Fort Worth woman. Mr. Leal, a Mexican citizen, is scheduled to die July 7 for the 1994 rape and murder of a 16-year-old San Antonio girl. The inmates are asking a state district judge to stop Texas from using pentobarbital, because they say the new process was adopted illegally. The department declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Documents made public in the lawsuit show that Rick Thaler, director of the Correctional Institutions Division at the department, did not consult doctors, pharmacists or any medical professionals before he made the decision to switch drugs.

In an affidavit, Mr. Thaler — who declined an interview request, citing the litigation — wrote that he learned from news accounts that Oklahoma had decided to use pentobarbital in its lethal injection procedure, a three-drug cocktail similar to the one used in Texas. He said he also read testimony he found online from Dr. Mark Dershwitz, an anesthesiologist whom Oklahoma hired to defend its use of pentobarbital in a court challenge (the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has since upheld Oklahoma’s procedure). Mr. Thaler also read that Ohio used pentobarbital alone without incident in an execution last month.

“Based upon the information available to me and reported by my staff, I made the decision to change the execution protocol,” Mr. Thaler wrote. He signed off on the new procedure on March 15.

But documents from the lawsuit also show that as early as Feb. 9, Texas had ordered nearly $25,000 worth of pentobarbital — 39 doses, more than twice the total number of executions Texas conducted in 2010. The purchase was made weeks before officials of the Department of Criminal Justice repeatedly told The Texas Tribune, in response to questions, that no decision had been made on what drugs it would use in coming executions.

Michelle Lyons, a department spokeswoman, said the agency had been concerned about the drug’s availability. “We did not decide to use it in the lethal injection process until after we received the shipment,” she said.

In the lawsuit filed this week in Travis County District Court, the inmates’ lawyers argue that department officials should have abided by the Texas Administrative Procedure Act, which requires agencies to seek public input on rules changes. “The hallmark of the process has been its lack of transparency,” said Maurie A. Levin, one of the lawyers.

Had the public been allowed to participate, Ms. Levin said, Mr. Thaler might have been made aware of other expert testimony in the Oklahoma case that raised concerns about the use of pentobarbital in executions. Dr. David Waisel testified then that too little is known about the use of pentobarbital with other drugs to ensure a humane execution.

The report, in a slightly different version is posted at the Texas Tribune as, "Death Penalty Drug Switch Ignites Controversy."

A day after filing the lawsuit, lawyers for the Texas death row inmates delivered letters to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Texas Department of Public Safety seeking an investigation into whether the state illegally obtained death penalty drugs. Purchase orders from the Department of Criminal Justice show that the agency uses a federal Drug Enforcement Agency registration number issued to the Huntsville Unit Hospital, which has been closed since 1983. If an investigation shows that the drugs were obtained illegally, Levin said, the DEA could revoke or suspend the state’s registration and make the state forfeit its supply of drugs.

Jason Clark, a spokesman for the criminal justice agency, said, “We are still reviewing the allegations, but are confident that we have not violated any state or federal law.”

Lundbeck Inc., the only producer of pentobarbital in the U.S., urged state officials in a letter this week not to use the drug. Lundbeck — based in Denmark, which opposes the death penalty — has also sent letters to other states using or planning to use pentobarbital in lethal injections.

“We’re dedicated to saving lives,” said Matt Flesch, a spokesman for Lundbeck. “To use our products to end lives contradicts everything we’re in business to do.”

As I've noted before, the nonprofit Texas Tribune, provides expanded Texas coverage to the New York Times.

Earlier Texas lethal injection coverage begins at the link.

Additional Coverage of Texas Lethal Drug Purchases

The letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, an appendix of exhibits, and the letter to DPS are available in Adobe .pdf format.

Today's Dallas Morning News reports, "Lawyers accuse Texas of illegally purchasing execution drugs."  It's written by Matthew Huisman.

In letters to the Texas Department of Public Safety and Attorney General Eric Holder, attorneys Maurie Levin and Sandra Babcock accuse the state of providing false information to a Drug Enforcement Administration database used to monitor the sale and use of controlled substances.

According to Levin and Babcock, the agency has been purchasing execution drugs using a registration number assigned to the Huntsville Unit Hospital, which closed in 1983. Registration numbers must be renewed every three years.

“As far as we can tell, they are breaking state and federal law,” Levin said. “The laws exist for a reason and they should not be exempt from them.”

Jason Clark, spokesman for the Department of Criminal Justice, contends the agency did nothing wrong.

“We are still reviewing the allegations but are confident that we have not violated any state or federal law,” Clark said in a written statement. “We will cooperate fully with any investigation.”

Raul Reyes , spokesman for the University of Texas Medical Branch said that the institution operates 112 outpatient facilities in Texas prisons, including the Huntsville unit, but said they don’t order, possess or distribute any of the drugs used in executions.

The letter contends that the drugs are “neither kept by a pharmacy, hospital or clinic, nor dispensed by an authorized practitioner.” A purchase order invoice names Warden James Jones as the recipient.

At the Wall Street Journal Law blog, Nathan Koppel posts, "Danish Maker of Execution Drug Will Not Block Sales to Prisons."

In other news, University of Texas law school professor Maurie Levin today wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder claiming that the Texas prison system has likely violated federal law by purchasing drugs with a Drug Enforcement Administration registration number assigned to a hospital that has been closed since 1983.  Levin asks Holder in the letter to investigate Texas. (Click here to see the letter.)

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not return a request for comment.

More on Lundbeck in the next post.

The AP post is, "Lawyers for 2 death row inmates question legality of Texas prisons’ lethal drugs acquisition," is via the Washington Post.

Attorneys for two Texas death row inmates say state officials have been buying lethal-injection drugs using a long-closed prison hospital’s federal registration number.

The lawyers represent inmates Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal. Foster is set to die next week and Leal in July.

In letters sent Wednesday to the U.S. attorney general and Texas public safety director, attorneys Maurie Levin and Sandra Babcock allege the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has violated federal law for more than 25 years.

They’ve asked for an investigation into whether a federal Drug Enforcement Agency number for the Huntsville Unit Hospital has been used to acquire drugs for executions. They say the hospital closed in 1983.

"Texas illegally obtaining lethal drugs: lawyers," is the AFP report, via Google News.

The lawyers of two Texas death row inmates asked Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday to open an investigation on the state's alleged illegal purchases of lethal injection drugs.

In a letter made public by the lawyers, they said they had uncovered official documents through a Freedom of Information Act request that "leads us to believe that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has violated the federal Controlled Substances Act."

According to the lawyers, the state has purchased for the past 25 years controlled substances used in lethal injections by using a Drug Enforcement Administration registration number for the the Huntsville Unit Hospital, which has been closed since 1983.

The Texas execution chamber is located in the same city.

"As a result, we believe that TDCJ is unlawfully in possession of and unlawfully dispensing controlled substances," the lawyers said.

Prison authorities did not immediately respond to AFP's requests for comment.

Attorneys for condemned convicts Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal noted that the products used by correctional authorities to carry out executions were "neither kept by a pharmacy, hospital or clinic, nor dispensed by an authorized practitioner through a prescription or otherwise."

Rather, they were kept inside the state's Huntsville unit where executions take place by TDCJ staff, rather than officials legally authorized to be in possession of the drugs.

"Given these potential violations of federal law and the resulting impact on the legality of the executions imminently contemplated, we respectfully urge you to direct appropriate agencies within your department to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of these issues," the lawyers wrote.

 Mike Ward has updated his Austin American-Statesman report, "Complaint says execution drugs being procured illegally."

Prison officials denied any wrongdoing. "We will cooperate fully with any investigation," said Jason Clark, a corrections system spokesman in Huntsville. "We are still reviewing the allegations but are confident that we have not violated any state or federal law."

Maurie Levin , an Austin attorney who represents Foster, said prison officials' own paperwork calls the process into question.

"Federal and state laws governing the purchase, possession and transfer of controlled substances exist to guard against diversion, and ensure the efficacy and lawful use of these drugs," she said. "For TDCJ to have misrepresented for 25 years the information the DEA relies upon to assess the legitimacy of these drugs reflects a profound disregard for protocol and the law."

If an investigation confirms that the prison system violated the law, Levin said the DEA may revoke or suspend the violator's registration to possess controlled substances and require that all controlled substances held by the prison system be delivered to the DEA.

"The fact that it is a law enforcement institution that is breaking the law should not shield them from the consequences," Levin said in a statement. "An institution charged with keeping the law should be held, at least, to the same standard as every other entity or individual, especially when the process involves the taking of a life. Any indication that they are violating the law is cause for alarm and immediate action."

Brandi Grissom's Texas Tribune post, "Lawyers Allege Texas Illegally Obtains Death Drugs," has also been updated.

TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said the agency would cooperate fully with any investigation. “We are still reviewing the allegations, but are confident that we have not violated any state or federal law,” he said.

Lawyers for two Texas death row inmates today asked state and federal law enforcement to investigate whether prison officials illegally obtained death penalty drugs the state used in nearly all of its 466 executions by using the Drug Enforcement Agency registration number of a long-closed facility.

The DEA registration number that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice uses to a obtain drugs used for lethal injection is issued to the Huntsville Unit Hospital. That hospital, built in 1935, used to be the main medical facility for inmates. But during state reforms to prison health care, the Huntsville Unit Hospital was replaced in 1983 with a facility at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

At the Austin Chronicle, Jordan Smith posts, "TDCJ Violating Federal Drug Laws?"

According to lawyers for condemned inmate Cleve Foster, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has been illegally purchasing lethal injection drugs. According to the attorneys, Maurie Levin of UT School of Law, and Sandra Babcock of Northwestern University School of Law, the state's prison agency has been purchasing controlled substances – including drugs used for lethal injections – under the Drug Enforcement Administration registration certificate assigned to an entity that hasn't existed for nearly 30 years. "[A]s a result, we believe that TDCJ is unlawfully in possession of an unlawfully dispensing controlled substances," the lawyers wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

The problem, it appears, is that TDCJ has been purchasing controlled substances under a registration number assigned to the system's Huntsville Unit Hospital, which, it turns out, has been closed since 1983. TDCJ medical services are provided by the UTMB, and although the med system has "numerous DEA registration numbers, none of them is actually registered to either the Huntsville Unit," which has been purchasing the drugs, or to the address listed on the registration. "DEA Registration numbers must be renewed every three years," write the lawyers, who are representing Foster, scheduled to be executed April 5. "Assuming the DEA registration number used by TDCJ last month to purchase controlled substances was one originally issued to the Huntsville Unit Hospital, TDCJ has failed, on information and belief, to advice the DEA for the past twenty-eight years of the fact that the Huntsville Unit Hospital no longer exists," and that what actually exists at that location is a prison unit with a warden that is "purchasing and dispensing controlled substances" with a number "registered to a nonexistent entity."

Uh-oh. That doesn't sound so good. And neither does this: According to the lawyers, it appears that the drugs aren't being kept at a pharmacy or by a DEA-registered handler. "At no point is an appropriately licensed or authorized practitioner involved in the dispensing process, and at no point is a prescription written to transfer the controlled substances to a member of the execution team," the lawyers write.

Earlier coverage of Texas' lethal injection drugs begins at the link.  Attorney Levin is also challenging the process in Texas' switch to pentobarbital, as noted at the link.

Did TDCJ Obtain Execution Drugs Illegally

Mike Ward posts, "Complaint: Texas illegally acquiring lethal drugs," at the Austin American-Statesman.

In a new challenge to Texas’ execution procedure, two condemned convicts complained to federal and state today alleging that state prison officials have been illegally obtaining the prescription drugs used in executions.

In a complaint delivered to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal contended that a DEA registration number used to purchase the three execution drugs is registered to a non-existent hospital — in possible violation of state and federal law.

A prescription written by a doctor is needed to obtain prescription drugs under federal and state law.

“The DEA registration number used by TDCJ was … obtained and/or retained through false pretenses,” because it is registered to the Huntsville Unit Hospital, which has been closed since approximately 1983, the complaint states.

Attorneys for Foster and Leal asked the Department of Justice and DPS to investigate TDCJ’s potential violations and “take appropriate steps if TDCJ has violated federal (or state) law.”

The letter to Holder further alleges that the controlled substances used by TDCJ to carry out executions “are neither kept by a pharmacy, hospital, or clinic, nor dispensed by an authorized practitioner through a prescription.”

Instead, the complaint alleges, the drugs are kept by prison officials, who are not authorized by law to possess or distribute controlled substances.

Brandi Grissom posts, "Lawyers Allege Texas Illegally Obtains Death Drugs," at the Texas Tribune.

Lawyers for two Texas death row inmates today asked state and federal law enforcement to investigate whether prison officials illegally obtained death penalty drugs the state used in nearly all of its 466 executions by using the Drug Enforcement Agency registration number of a long-closed facility.

The DEA registration number that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice uses to a obtain drugs used for lethal injection is issued to the Huntsville Unit Hospital. That hospital, built in 1935, used to be the main medical facility for inmates. But during state reforms to prison health care, the Huntsville Unit Hospital was replaced in 1983 with a facility at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

"For TDCJ to have misrepresented for 25 years the information the DEA relies upon to assess the legitimacy of these drugs reflects a profound disregard for protocol and the law,” said Maurie Levin, an attorney for two death row inmates who are suing the state over its recent decision to change its lethal injection protocol. The inmates ague that the TDCJ violated state transparency laws when it decided to change one of the drugs used in the state's three-drug lethal injection cocktail.

The letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, an appendix of exhibits, and the letter to DPS are available in Adobe .pdf format.

Earlier Texas lethal injection coverage begins at the link.

Illinois Editorial & Column Call for Governor to Sign Repeal Bill

Today's Chicago Sun-Times carries the editorial, "It takes courage to correct injustice."

It’s not easy to do the right thing when it comes to an issue as emotional as the death penalty.

Exhibit A is a statement circulated earlier this year by the parents of Jeanine Nicarico, murdered at 10 years old in 1983 by Death Row inmate Brian Dugan. Jeanine’s parents called the House vote in January to abolish the death penalty “an act of cowardice, laziness and disregard for justice” and asked the Senate and Gov. Quinn to reject it.

That’s a strong statement, especially coming from two people who long publicly sought the execution of three men who turned out to be innocent.

Former Gov. George Ryan revealed a different emotional reaction to the death penalty in a 2010 deposition that recently came to light. At one point, he talked about a former classmate who had asked, “Are you going to kill my son?” At another point, he cited the case of Anthony Porter, who was within 50 hours of execution when a legal technicality saved him. Porter also later turned out to be innocent.

And:

The legislation to abolish the death penalty has been approved by the General Assembly and sits on the governor’s desk.

Signing it would not be an act of cowardice or laziness.

It would be an act on the side of justice.

"Quinn should sign bill banning death penalty," is the title of Jerry Moore's column in the Batavia Republican.

When it comes to capital punishment, there’s no moratorium on opinions.

Illinois residents have wrestled with capital punishment since 2000 when Gov. George Ryan placed a ban on executions. During a veto session earlier this year, state legislators voted to abolish the death penalty. Gov. Pat Quinn has until March 18 to sign the bill.

The voting went largely along party lines. Two local legislators, however, broke ranks with their caucus and sided with their political rivals.

Former state Rep. Bob Biggins, R-41st District, of Elmhurst and Sen. Ron Sandack, R-21st District, of Downers Grove voted to abolish capital punishment.

And:

Measures can be passed to provide more safeguards, but what if even these don’t work all the time? How can a government compensate a victim of injustice when the person is dead?

Rotting in prison for the rest of your life is no walk in the park. The best way to avoid executing an innocent person is to ban the practice. Quinn should sign the bill.

Both Chicago papers examine the last-minute lobbying.  The Sun-Times report is, "Cardinal George, world leaders lobbied Quinn on death penalty," written by Dave McKinney.

Cardinal Francis George, politicians from Great Britain and Germany and the mother of a murdered college student are among thousands of people who have lobbied Gov. Quinn on death-penalty repeal legislation now on his desk.

Since the General Assembly narrowly passed the landmark measure in January, Quinn’s office has been inundated with calls, letters and e-mails that decidedly tilt in favor of doing away with the death penalty.

Quinn spokesman Grant Klinzman said roughly 12,000 people have urged the governor to sign the death-penalty repeal, while about 700 have encouraged him to veto it.

Late Tuesday, Quinn’s office released 167 pages of correspondence from those advocating both sides of the issue in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Tribune report, "Quinn under pressure on executions," is by Monique Garcia.

Gov. Pat Quinn sat stoically and took pages of handwritten notes as family members of murder victims begged him to preserve the death penalty as an option for those convicted of killing their loved ones, the impassioned pleas coming during a closed-door meeting last week with the prosecutors who helped put the killers behind bars.

Weeks earlier, the governor followed much the same routine as he was told the capital punishment system is too broken to keep in place by Sister Helen Prejean, a New Orleans nun whose experiences with a Death Row inmate became the basis for the film "Dead Man Walking."

In both cases, Quinn gave no indication of what he'll do with a bill sitting on his desk that would abolish the death penalty in Illinois. It's a historic question for Quinn that will help define his term as governor. And he's had no shortage of advocates on both sides trying to sway him in a state where the death penalty has a high-profile and troubled past.

The Sun-Times also publishes, "Kankakee father shaped George Ryan’s Death Row decision," by Natasha Korecki.

A Kankakee father who once asked George Ryan to spare his son from the death penalty said Tuesday he’s surprised to hear that Ryan credits him for helping him make the now-famous decision to clear out Death Row in 2003.

In a jailhouse deposition given last year — but released just this week — Ryan said an encounter with a worried father he had long known from their native Kankakee made “a big impact on my decision.”

Claude Lee, 76, confirmed Tuesday he was one who approached then-Gov. Ryan and asked: “Are you going to kill my son?”

Lee’s adult son, Eric, was on Death Row at the time for killing a police officer during a traffic stop in Kankakee in 1996.

“I asked him, was there a way he could save my son’s life?” Lee recalled Tuesday.

But he didn’t know the impact he made.

“That does surprise me, but it wasn’t just me,” he said.

Lee said Ryan recognized Illinois’ death penalty system was flawed. Lee was able to put a personal face on the men who were on Death Row, he said.

When Ryan put a moratorium on executions and commuted all death sentences to life terms, he spared Eric Lee, who is now at Menard Correctional Center.

“My son was a sick man, he was a mental case,” Claude Lee said. “George was a friend before [my son] was in jail. . .. We were in the same party. I was a committeeman. He was a state rep.”

Earlier coverage from Illinois begins with articles on the Ryan deposition and this update on Gov. Quinn's consideration of the repeal bill.

The Lethal Injection Fight in Arizona

Today's Arizona Republic carries the report, "Arizona Death Row inmates' lawyers fight import of lethal-injection drug."  It's by Michael Kiefer.

Attorneys representing Death Row prisoners in Arizona and two other states have asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to reject a request from 13 state attorneys general for help acquiring a drug used in executions by lethal injection.

And:

Attorneys Bradford Berenson and Coleen Klasmeier, and Dale Baich, from the Federal Public Defender's Office in Phoenix, recently sued the FDA to stop the agency from allowing states to import thiopental for executions. The lawsuit alleges that it is illegal to import the drug because it is not subject to FDA quality and safety standards.

On Jan. 25, the attorneys general of Oregon, Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Delaware, Idaho, Missouri, Tennessee and Washington wrote Holder to note the unavailability of the drug and to ask him to help identify appropriate sources for thiopental or to make it available to states that use lethal injection.

In response, the defense attorneys last week sent Holder a letter asking him to deny that request on the grounds that the drug is not FDA-approved and because their litigation challenging the FDA's import policy is pending.

Their lawsuit was filed this month on behalf of three Arizona Death Row prisoners and others in Tennessee and California. Two of the Arizona plaintiffs are scheduled for execution within the next six weeks, and the state has requested an execution date for the third. All three states obtained thiopental from a small pharmaceutical supplier in London.

As recently as November, FDA spokesmen took the position that the drug could not be legally imported, and an FDA deputy commissioner told British government officials that "there are no approved or permitted foreign sources of sodium thiopental."

Despite those statements, documents obtained by The Arizona Republic through the Freedom of Information Act show FDA officials allowed a delivery to Arizona for an October execution, expediting the shipment by "running sweeps" through a federal database to make sure it was not delayed.

Previously, the FDA had detained the drug - sometimes for months - in Memphis, where it first arrived from abroad. In those cases, the FDA claimed the drug was "misbranded."

But on Sept. 27, at the request of state Department of Corrections Deputy Director Charles Flanagan, Phoenix-based FDA official David Thomas notified FDA personnel in New Orleans, Memphis and at FDA headquarters that Arizona was receiving a shipment from Great Britain.

"These pharmaceuticals are needed to carry out an execution here in Arizona and are not for public consumption," Thomas wrote.

Earlier coverage of the letter from state attorneys general, the imported drugs, the Arizona excution, and the FDA's position begin at the links.  Related posts are in the lethal injection index.

Lethal Injection Roundup

The AP report on the FDA lawsuit is, "FDA sued over shipments of drug used in executions."  It's written by Greg bluestein and is via the Washington Post.

A federal lawsuit filed against the Food and Drug Administration urges a judge to block imports of a key drug used in the nation's executions that has been in short supply since the sole U.S. maker decided to stop producing it.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., claims the FDA has knowingly allowed state corrections officials to import sodium thiopental, the sedative used in a three-drug execution cocktail, that has not been approved by the agency.

"It just seems wrong to allow these suspect goods into the country in violation of federal law just because they're used on prisoners rather than law-abiding citizens," said Brad Berenson, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of death row inmates in California, Arizona and Tennessee.

The shortage has delayed executions in several states, and an Associated Press review found that at least five states - Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia and Tennessee - had to turn to England for their supply of the drug. Nebraska, meanwhile, secured a stockpile from an Indian firm.

The lawsuit claims the FDA is neglecting its duty to inspect shipments of sodium thiopental, noting that there are no FDA-approved overseas manufacturers of the drug.

"From our perspective, the FDA has the obligation to make sure the anesthetic works whether it's used in a lethal injection or used in surgeries," Berenson said. "In each case, the purpose is the same - to relieve pain and suffering."

The FDA did not immediately respond to requests for comment, though the agency has long maintained it has nothing to do with the drugs used in executions. But its role has come under more scrutiny after the lone U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental, Hospira Inc., announced it would no longer make the drug.

Today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports, "State tight-lipped on execution drug," by Andy Davis.

The Arkansas Department of Correction on Thursday withheld information about its purchase of a British supplier’s lethal injection drug, saying the information is exempt under the state’s Methods of Execution Act.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette requested information about the purchase on Wednesday, a day after reporting allegations in a lawsuit by death-row inmates that the department bought the drug from a “ramshackle” business run from the back of a British driving school.

Attorneys for the inmates contend the department cannot guarantee the drug works because it has not been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

In denying the newspaper’s Freedom of Information Act request, Assistant Director Dina Tyler cited the Methods of Execution Act.

Earlier coverage of the FDA lawsuit begins at the link; the civil law suit, Beaty v. FDA, is available in Adobe .pdf format.  More on Dream Pharma, the British supplier is at the link.  Earlier coverage of the Arkansas law, at the link.

More Lethal Injection News From the States

ABC News reports, "Texas Only Has Enough Lethal Injection Drugs to Execute 2 of 317 Death Row Inmates,"  It's by Russell Goldman.

Texas has 317 convicted murderers on death row, but because of a company's decision last week to stop making the key drug for lethal injections, Texas only has enough of the potion to execute two.

Consequently, Texas and 32 other states will be watching closely as Ohio prepares to execute Johnnie Baston. They will be watching not only to see how well the substitute drug works, but how entangling the legal battle is going to be.

And:

Texas, which has the busiest death row in the country, expects to run out of its supply of lethal drugs in March.

"The supply expires in March, so we'll have to look to some sort of alternative," said Texas Department of Corrections spokesman Jason Clarke. "We'll likely end up changing the drug. We'll look to what other states use successfully."

From Mississippi, today's Jackson Clarion Ledger carries the AP report, "State short on death drug Production, stopped in 2009, not resuming," by Holbrook Mohr.

Just weeks before Mississippi had back-to-back executions for the first time in nearly 50 years, officials were scrambling to find enough sodium thiopental to carry out the sentences.

The executions were carried out as scheduled, but the difficulty in finding sodium thiopental shows Mississippi is not immune from a nationwide shortage of the drug.

State Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Wednesday the state is looking for a replacement for sodium thiopental, one of three drugs used in Mississippi's executions.

"We don't have a choice. We're wearing out our options," Epps said.

And:

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood wrote a letter to Hospira last April, asking if there was anything he could do to help expedite a shipment of sodium thiopental because the state didn't have enough for two executions, scheduled the following month, on May 19 and 20.

In a reply dated May 18, Brian J. Smith, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Hospira, told Hood he couldn't help because Hospira does "not support the use of any of our products in capital punishment procedures" and that manufacturing had halted in mid-2009 due to "manufacturing difficulties."

Smith wrote that Hospira was aware its products were being obtained from third parties for executions, but the company didn't agree with that practice and would not ship directly for use in lethal injections. The Associated Press obtained the letters through a public records request.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections eventually got the drug for the two May executions from a pharmacist who doesn't want to be identified, said department spokeswoman Tara Booth.

The article notes that Mississippi's supply, enough for four executions, expires in March.

In Nebraska, the Lincoln Journal Star reports, "Nebraska bought enough lethal injection drug for 166 executions.  It's by Kevin O'Hanlon.

The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services recently bought such a large quantity of a drug used to kill death-row inmates by lethal injection that it now has enough to carry out 166 executions -- even though it has just 12 men on death row.

The state paid $2,056 to Kayem Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd. for 500 grams of sodium thiopental from a pharmaceuticals company in India. Corrections spokeswoman Dawn-Renee Smith said that was the minimum amount the company would sell.

And:

Mark Caverly of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said states can give or sell doses of the drug to other states for use in executions, as long as they are both registered with the DEA and the drug was properly imported.

"Basically, the answer is yes,'' he said. "There are some conditions to any controlled substance transfer."

A doctor, hospital, clinic or, in this case, the Corrections Department, can transfer up to 5 percent of the total controlled substances it buys in a year to another DEA-registered entity.

But Smith said Nebraska prison officials are not looking at doing so, even though the expiration date for the batch Nebraska got is August 2012.

"It will remain in our inventory," she wrote in an e-mail to the Journal Star. "Selling it is not an option we are pursuing."

The Nebraska Attorney General is currently seeking an execution date for one on the state's death row.  Earlier coverage of the state's new supply of sodium thiopental is at the link.

Earlier coverage from Texas is at the link.

Lethal Injection Rumblings From Other States

In Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reports, "Lack of lethal-injection drug means Florida must develop new execution procedure." It's by Anthony Colarossi.  The article notes that the state currently has no scheduled exeuctions.

On Friday, Lake Forest, Ill.-based Hospira Inc. announced in a statement that it "will exit the sodium thiopental market and no longer attempt to resume production of its product, Pentothal."

That company was the sole American producer of the drug.

"We do use that drug in our lethal-injection process," state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said. "We are exploring other options. At this point, we're looking at making changes to the procedure. If we change one drug, we might have to change another drug."

She also anticipates a legal challenge with the change because the old sequence of drugs had the approval of the courts.

Florida's most-recent execution occurred nearly one year ago, on Feb. 16, when inmate Martin Grossman was put to death by lethal injection after more than 24 years on death row for a 1984 Pinellas County murder.

Since then, a halt in production of the drug has delayed executions in other states, according to a New York Times report.

It's not clear, however, whether the shortage influenced decisions not to carry out death sentences here. In Florida, death-row inmates must elect whether their execution comes by lethal injection or electrocution soon after their first appeal is denied.

Every current Florida death-row inmate at that stage has elected the lethal-injection option, Plessinger said.

Some of the drug was on hand "as of a couple of weeks ago," Plessinger said, but she added: "I know there is a shelf life on the drug."

And:

As the lethal-injection-drug issue plays out, the state Department of Corrections awaits its new secretary, Edwin Buss, set to take the job in mid- to late February, to offer guidance when he arrives, Plessinger said.

Sodium thiopental has a shelf life of about two years. With the last batch made in 2009, the remaining supplies of the drug are set to expire this year.

Florida changed its lethal injection procedure following a botched execution in 2006.

"Nebraska considers 1st execution since 1997," is the AP report via today's New York Times.

Nebraska is inching closer to its first execution in more than 13 years and its first since retiring its electric chair in favor of lethal injection.

Less than a week after obtaining the hard-to-find anesthetic called for in Nebraska's lethal-injection plan, state officials asked the Nebraska Supreme Court Monday to set an execution date for Carey Dean Moore.

But Moore, who came within a week of being executed in Nebraska's electric chair in 2007, plans to fight, his attorney Alan Peterson said Tuesday. So several years may pass before an execution is carried out because the courts haven't yet evaluated Nebraska's new execution procedures.

The state's last execution occurred in 1997, when Robert Williams was electrocuted for killing three women. Eleven men remain on Nebraska's death row. Besides Williams, Harold Otey and John Joubert also have been electrocuted since the state resumed executions in 1994.

And:

For nearly four decades, former state Sen. Ernie Chambers, who opposed the death penalty, held up any effort to change Nebraska's method of execution because he believed the electric chair eventually would be banished by the courts. Chambers' departure from the Legislature in 2008 because of term limits made it possible for lawmakers to pass the lethal injection bill.

On Friday, the state received the third drug needed to carry out an execution by lethal injection. A worldwide shortage of the drug, sodium thiopental, has made it hard to acquire, and the only U.S. manufacturer of the drug announced last week that it would stop making it.

"New execution date sought for Moore," by Martha Stoddard is from the Omaha World-Herald.

Attorney General Jon Bruning asked the Nebraska Supreme Court on Monday to set a new execution date for convicted killer Carey Dean Moore.

Bruning made the request three days after state corrections officials reported they were prepared to carry out a lethal injection.

The officials said Nebraska received a shipment this month of a chemical needed for an execution. The chemical expires in August 2012.

But expected legal challenges to the state’s lethal injection law and its three-drug protocol could delay any execution, potentially beyond that date.

Alan Peterson of Lincoln, Moore’s longtime attorney, said there are still legal matters to be decided in Moore’s case.

He said he has not had a chance to talk with Moore since the new filing to find out what direction Moore wants to take.

In the meantime, ACLU Nebraska attorneys will meet Tuesday to consider a challenge to the rule-making process used by state officials to set the lethal injection protocol.

“This is potentially a long row to hoe for the killing machine,” said Amy Miller, legal director for the group.

No executions have been set and no courts have reviewed Nebraska’s lethal injection law since lawmakers passed it in 2009.

Earlier coverage from Nebraska begins with posts noting the state's lack of execution drugs and the state's renovated death chamber.

From Kentucky, the AP report, "Kentucky debated back-to-back executions," by Brett Barrqouquere is via the Lexington Herald-Leader.

While Kentucky prison officials searched for an essential drug needed to carry out capital punishment for three longtime death row inmates, they also considered holding back-to-back executions.

Kentucky Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson asked program administrator Brad Adams in August to research if any states had performed multiple executions in one day within the last five years, according to e-mails obtained by The Associated Press under Kentucky's open records law.

"I need it as soon as possible (day before yesterday)," Thompson wrote on Aug. 24.

The answer was that no state had done it within the last five years. Kentucky has performed three executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, compared to 464 in Texas, 108 in Virginia and 40 in Ohio.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway in November 2009 had requested warrants on three death row inmates, all of whom had been awaiting execution for more than a decade an a half.

The state had 6 grams of sodium thiopental in stock, enough to carry out a single execution. Kentucky lethal injection protocal calls for using 3 grams during the execution and keeping 3 grams on reserve in case something goes wrong. The state's supply of sodium thiopental was set to expire on Oct. 1, setting off a national search for more of the drug, which had become scarce.

And:

Justice Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin said Monday Hospira's decision shouldn't have an immediate impact in Kentucky, which is barred from executing inmates because of an injunction unrelated to the drug that went into effect in September, putting Wilson's and all remaining executions on hold.

More on the Kentucky stay and its attempt to obtain drugs, at the links.

Finally, New Scientist has a Q&A on the topic, "Drug shortage delays US executions."  It's by Ferris Jabr.

Why not perform lethal injection without sodium thiopental?

The drug's role is to prevent the prisoner from feeling pain, so that lethal injection does not violate the US constitution as a "cruel and unusual punishment". But doctors have questioned whether prison staff have the training required to properly administer the drug – in medical communities, anaesthetists undergo years of training before they can practise.

Are we certain that lethal injection is painless?

No. A 2007 study in PLoS Medicine suggested that, were the anaesthetic to fail, inmates may die from painful asphyxiation caused by the other drugs in the cocktail. Because inmates are paralysed by pancuronium bromide, they are unlikely to be able to express any discomfort.

"Despite the fact that support for lethal injection rests on the argument that it is a humane procedure, it is probably anything but humane," says Teresa Zimmers, one of the authors of the only two peer-reviewed studies on lethal injection.

What are alternatives to sodium thiopental?

At least one state, Oklahoma, had already switched from sodium thiopental to another anaesthetic, pentobarbital, which is more easily acquired.

The most commonly used general anaesthetic in US hospitals and veterinary clinics is propofol, which has almost entirely replaced sodium thiopental in US clinical settings. It is not clear why, when the medical community switched to propofol, prisons did not follow suit. Propofol has, however, been in short supply since 2009, when two US-based manufacturers stopped production.

Related posts are in the lethal injection category index.

Hearing Today in Georgia Lethal Injection Challenge

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, "Julie Love killer to attend hearing on execution method."  It's written by Bill Rankin and Rhonda Cook.

A Fulton County judge will hold a hearing Friday on condemned killer Emmanuel Hammond's claim that his scheduled execution next week should be stopped until the state provides records concerning the drugs they will use to carry out the lethal injection.

Judge Michael Johnson has asked that Hammond be brought to Atlanta  from his cell on Death Row at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson 50 miles away for the 1 p.m. hearing.

Hammond's lawyers have decided not to ask the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to stop his execution, scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m., for the 1988 abduction and murder of Julie Love in a case that gained wide publicity at the time. Instead, his lawyers are focusing on the courts, according to Atlanta lawyer Brian Mendelsohn.

That strategy includes a lawsuit filed Thursday seeking a stay of execution and contending that the state has failed to provide requested information about the drugs to be used for Hammond's execution by lethal injection.

The issue of drugs used in lethal injection is national. Some states have found the drugs they have in stock have expired. There also is a shortage of the sedative that Georgia and other states administer at the beginning of the process.

Prison officials have said Georgia has an adequate supply of the drugs.

The AP report by Greg Bluestein is, "Condemned Ga. man wants lethal injection details," via the Macon Telegraph.

A condemned Georgia man scheduled to die next week asked a judge Thursday to delay the execution because his lawyers claim the state won't hand over key details about a lethal injection drug that has been hard to track down amid a nationwide shortage.

The lawsuit, filed in Fulton County Superior Court by the Southern Center for Human Rights, asks the judge to halt Emmanuel Hammond's execution until the Georgia Department of Corrections details the cost, inventory and expiration dates for the drugs used in executions.

And:

The lawsuit contends that state officials denied the request because they claimed it could "compromise security against sabotage, criminal or terroristic acts." But the suit says those records are of "high public interest" and should be subject to inspection. Refusing to release them violates Georgia's sunshine laws, it said.

"The state has hid from public view critical records about whether the lethal injection process is medically and constitutionally acceptable," said Gerald Weber, an attorney with the Atlanta-based center. "If the state does not have the necessary chemicals, or is using expired ones, it cannot hide those facts from Georgians."

State officials declined to comment on the lawsuit. But corrections spokeswoman Peggy Chapman said that Georgia has "an appropriate supply of sodium thiopental and is prepared to carry out the order of the sentencing court."

The lawsuit is just one of Hammond's legal avenues in the run-up to the execution. Hammond's attorney Brian Mendelsohn said Thursday he won't be seeking clemency at a Board of Pardons and Paroles hearing scheduled for Friday, and instead will focus on "litigating his case in the courts."

Related posts are in the lethal injection index.

Where Texas Obtains Its Lethal Injection Drugs

The next three posts all relate to lethal injection news.  First, Texas.

"Ohio company supplies state with lethal drugs," is the title of Mike Ward's report in today's Austin American-Statesman.

Texas, which runs the nation's busiest prison death chamber, buys the three lethal drugs it uses to execute its condemned convicts from an Ohio pharmaceutical supplier, officials disclosed Thursday.

The revelation came after state prison officials had for months fought the release of the information, in unsuccessful arguments to Attorney General Greg Abbott and to a Travis County state district judge.

At several points, prison officials had argued that the safety of prison employees and the employees of the supplier might be jeopardized if the supplier's name was made public. Additionally, they insisted that the supplier might stop shipping the drugs to Texas, and executions could be stopped.

Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said all three drugs are purchased from Besse Medical, a supplier based in West Chester, Ohio .

She said she did not have additional information about the supplier or whether the disclosure could affect future deliveries of the drugs.

She said an Austin judge ordered the agency on Jan. 11 to reveal the name of the supplier as part of a court challenge filed by condemned killer Cleve Foster. He was scheduled to die Jan. 11, but the U.S. Supreme Court delayed his execution just before it was to take place. The high court rejected Foster's latest appeal Tuesday.

Officials at Besse and Pennsylvania-based AmerisourceBergen Corp., its corporate owner, could not immediately be reached for comment.

And:

Abbott had ordered prison officials to make public some information about the lethal injection drugs after the American-Statesman and other groups requested records about the inventories and suppliers of lethal injection drugs.

In response, Texas prison officials announced last fall that they had enough doses to execute 39 prisoners, but that all doses of the sodium thiopental expire in March.

Earlier coverage begins with the post, "Texas Lethal Injection Drugs."  Related posts are in the lethal injection index.

Companies Won't Sell Kentucky Lethal Injection Drug

That's the title of Brett Barrouquere's AP report via Google News.  It's also available via ABC News.  Here are extended excerpts.  Those following the issue will want to read the entire article

Amid a nationwide shortage of a lethal injection drug, documents obtained under a freedom of information request show two pharmaceutical companies declined to sell Kentucky a supply of the sedative.

The state e-mails obtained by The Associated Press show one firm, KRS Global Biotechnology of Boca Raton, Fla., explained its refusal by saying there was no doctor involved in the purchase of sodium thiopental, even though Kentucky law bars physicians from being involved in administering executions.

No reason was given in the e-mail traffic between state officials and pharmacists for a canceled order from the other company, Spectrum Chemical and Laboratory Products of Gardenia, Calif. A Spectrum official told the AP the ordered was scrapped when it sold that part of its business last year.

At least seven other states that use sodium thiopental for lethal injections have had trouble in recent months finding enough of the drug, whose main U.S. manufacturer has cited supply problems. The shortage has not delayed any executions in Kentucky because they have been on hold since a judge's order in September over an unrelated issue.

The Kentucky e-mails are the first public record of companies declining to sell the drug to states for executions.

They show a massive search for any stock of unexpired sodium thiopental. Kentucky prison officials contacted more than two dozen states, more than a half-dozen chemical companies and even the federal Bureau of Prisons. Kentucky also couldn't find any states willing to share their limited supplies, even after giving Ohio 3 of the 6 grams it needed for an execution in June.

"I am beginning to think drug companies and suppliers are not real happy to have to supply us for this use," Phil Parker, warden of the Kentucky State Penitentiary that houses the state's death chamber, wrote in a July e-mail.

Kentucky started searching for sodium thiopental in January 2010, about six weeks after the state Attorney General's office asked the governor to set execution dates in three cases.

By June, it had focused on Spectrum Chemical as the only company with the drug in stock. The state placed an order with Spectrum on June 14 for 50 grams of the fast-acting sedative, enough to conduct eight executions. But in July, Spectrum called off the deal.

State officials wrote in e-mails that the cancellation came after Spectrum found out the customer was the Kentucky Department of Corrections, not a hospital or clinic, as listed on the department's federal license allowing the drug purchase.

A pharmacist at Fredonia Pharmacy Corner, an outlet 15 miles from the prison that the state used to buy other drugs, offered to order the sodium thiopental for Kentucky as long as he could tack on a 15 percent markup. Spectrum rejected the order, saying they don't sell to pharmacies. The state penitentiary's Parker speculated that Spectrum figured out why the department wanted the drug.

"Bottom line is, they are not going to sell to anyone or any entity associated with us," Parker wrote on July 19 to Kentucky Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson.

And:

Kentucky then negotiated a $16,000 order with KRS-GBT in September to cover enough of the drug for six executions, but the deal fell through because the company insisted that a doctor take part in the acquisition, said Jennifer Brislin, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Justice Cabinet.

Having a doctor participate in buying the drug could have violated state law, which forbids physicians from having a role in an execution.

"The Department of Corrections couldn't comply with that request," Brislin said.

Also:

Sodium thiopental has been used as an anesthetic in surgery, but many hospitals have switched to propofol to render patients unconscious, leaving very few medical uses for sodium thiopental.

Officials with Hospira have written to at least two states — Ohio and Mississippi — saying the drug is produced with medical uses, not executions, in mind.

"As such, we do not support the use of any of our products in capital punishment procedures," Dr. Kees Gioenhout, vice president of clinical research and development, wrote to Ohio prison officials in March.

More on states' scramble for execution drug begins with the post, "FDA Helps States Get Execution Drug."  Related posts are in the lethal injection index.

More on the California Drug Purchase

The San Francisco Chronicle reports, "State buys execution drug from British firm."  It's written by Bob Egelko.

California prison officials say they're about to receive enough lethal drugs from a British company for more than 80 executions, after running out of their regular supply and looking for replacements as far away as Pakistan.

The 521-gram shipment of the sedative sodium thiopental would allow the state to resume lethal injections at San Quentin State Prison if it can persuade a federal judge, who imposed a moratorium five years ago, that new procedures have eliminated the risk of a botched and agonizing execution.

But the drugs will not be accompanied by an assurance from any agency, state or federal, that they will work the way they're supposed to.

The federal government says that's not part of its job.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which certifies domestic supplies of sodium thiopental for medical use, says it approves the importing of drugs for lethal injections without examining their contents.

Because its mission is "protecting the public health," the agency said Thursday, it "chooses to continue to defer to law enforcement on all matters involving lethal injection."

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has no obligation to conduct independent tests, said spokeswoman Terry Thornton.

"All our efforts to acquire the drug, and any drug for lethal injection, were done in accordance with state and federal law," Thornton said.

That means the courts must step in, said the American Civil Liberties Union, whose lawsuit led to the disclosures.

"If the FDA is going to refuse to enforce the law and ensure the quality of these drugs, then the court must do so," said Natasha Minsker, the ACLU's chief death penalty lawyer in San Francisco.

And:

On Monday, the ACLU will ask a San Francisco Superior Court judge to order the state to disclose more documents. Minsker said the civil liberties group wants all communications from federal agencies and records of any involvement by top state officials.

"We want to know who's making the decisions," Minsker said.

Earlier coverage from California begins at the link; also, more on the British exporter.

Another Willingham Case Issue

Peggy Fikac wrote, "Perry keeps clemency report secret," for the Saturday edition of the Houston Chronicle.

A Travis County state district judge has denied a motion by Hearst Newspapersto force Gov. Rick Perry's office to hand over a memorandum and supporting documents he received before denying a stay of execution in the high-profile case of Cameron Todd Willingham.

Willingham was executed in 2004 for the 1991 deaths of his three daughters in a fire. Lawyers for the New York-based Innocence Project, citing modern forensics, have said the blaze cannot be proven to have been arson.

In response to a request from Hearst's Houston Chronicle earlier this year, Perry's office refused to release the clemency report, saying it was protected from disclosure under the law. That prompted the news organization's lawsuit.

Hearst asked for the memo and other documents in pre-trial motions.

The state's attorney general's office, representing Perry, said the memo was protected under attorney-client privilege, and that the supporting documents from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles were confidential under the law.

The article notes that the newspaper is evaluating whether to appeal the ruling.

Earlier coverage of the open records issue is in the post, "Peggy Fikac's Latest Column."  Willingham coverage starts with, "Appeals Court Rules in Willingham Court of Inquiry Recusal Issue," posted earlier today.

All Willingham coverage is available through the Todd Willingham index.

Peggy Fikac's Latest Column

The Houston Chronicle / San Antonio Express-News columnist and reporter's latest column is, "Trimming budget with empty benches."  It addresses two different issues of interest.  First, the CCA and the state budget.  Texas is facing an estimated $28 billion shortfall in the next budget.

Here’s one way to cut the budget at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: Trim it by one judge, at least temporarily.

The state's highest criminal court made the suggestion earlier this year during the first round of cuts to help address a looming, massive state budget shortfall.

Judge Charles Holcomb is retiring at the end of this year because of age restrictions — he's 77 - and GOP Gov. Rick Perry would appoint his replacement to serve until the next general election.

But the nine-member appellate court, faced with a preliminary cost-savings target of $487,376 for the current fiscal period, said one option would be to ask Perry to leave the seat vacant until the end of the fiscal year next Aug. 31.

The court said this would save eight months of salary for Holcomb and a couple of staff members, for a total of $191,328. It also would leave the court with eight members, causing delays as the remaining judges took up the slack and setting up the possibility of a tie on some cases.

State leaders didn't go for the idea earlier this year, instead allowing the court to reduce its target savings. Now that leaders are directing another round of cuts, Presiding Judge Sharon Keller said she doesn't know whether the court might again recommend the idea. "It's really up to the governor," she said, adding that she's not sure if it's an option since leaders exempted that item previously.

Whether or not it's resurrected, the proposal shows the lengths some agencies will consider to deal with the state's money problem.

On another topic, she writes:

The high-profile death-penalty case of Cameron Todd Willingham is the subject of an ongoing open-records battle in a lawsuit brought against Perry by the Houston Chronicle and Hearst Newspapers. Willingham was executed in 2004 for the 1991 deaths of his daughters in a fire. Death-penalty opponents, citing modern forensics, have said the blaze can't be proven to have been arson. Perry's office has refused to release a clemency report he received before denying a stay of execution, calling it privileged. State District Judge Suzanne Covington last week denied a request by lawyers for the news organization to review the memo to Perry and supporting documents through an "attorneys' eyes only" protective order so they can better frame their argument that the memo doesn't fall under attorney-client privilege. Covington said she would review the documents to decide whether they are protected. Her decision on that will go to the heart of the lawsuit.

All Willingham coverage is in the Todd Willingham index.  Related posts are in the Open Meetings / Open Records index.

California's Scramble for Lethal Injection Drug

The ACLU of Northern California has released documents obtained from the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation through a Freedom of Information Act request.  The webpage is titled, "CDCR's December 8, 2010 Response to ACLU Public Records Act Request: ACLU v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation."

On November 17, 2010, the ACLU-NC filed a suit under the California Public Records Act to demand records from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) about its recent acquisition of sodium thiopental, a controlled substance used as part of California’s lethal injection protocol for executing death row inmates. 

Click to read the case summary and view legal documents »

On December 8, 2010 the ACLU-NC received documents from the CDCR, which we have scanned and provided here in batches of about 50 pages.  All documents are posted as received from the CDCR, in the order received, with the following exceptions:

1) We have added our own electronic bates number to the bottom right corner of each page with the prefix "LI."  Our pages numbers start at LI000001 thru LI000989.    

2) We have edited in red pages 171, 172, 174, 177, 936, 937, 958, and 959 to remove the names of third parties that the CDCR redacted from identical documents, pending review by the California Superior Court as to whether this information should be available to the public.  The above page numbers correspond to the bates numbering we added. 

All pages of CDCR documents are available at the link.

The AP has two articles examining the documents.  First, "Docs show Calif.'s worldwide execution drug search," via Google News.

The e-mail from one California prison official to another almost reads like something out of a spy novel: "May have a secret and important mission for you."

Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation undersecretary Scott Kernan sent that message to assistant secretary Anthony Chaus on Sept. 29. The "mission" turned out to be a trip to Arizona for a fresh supply of sodium thiopental, the so-called knock-out drug used in the state's three-drug lethal injection.

California's only batch was set to expire and the drug was in short supply — as the state's first execution in five years loomed.

In August, Kernan, Chaus and other officials began a desperate worldwide search over two months for the drug, according to nearly 1,000 pages of documents released late Wednesday.

Kernan needed Chaus to send "one of your So Cal guys" to the Arizona State Prison Complex to pick up 12 grams of sodium thiopental.

The next day, on Sept. 30, Warden Carson McWilliams in Florence, Ariz., handed a California prison agent 24 vials of it. The agent then drove more than eight hours to Gorman, where he handed the vials off to another CDCR agent to complete the trip to San Quentin Prison, which houses the state's death chamber.

The trip went through even though California authorities on Sept. 29 had called off the planned Sept. 30 execution of Albert Greenwood Brown because of an adverse court ruling connected to the expiration date of the sodium thiopental on hand.

California had earlier "loaned" Arizona pancuronium bromide, another vital ingredient in the lethal injection, so it could carry out an execution.

The documents on California's lethal injection drug search were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and posted on its Northern California chapter's website.

And:

Most of the documents are internal e-mails that show California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials scrambling to find a new supplier beginning in August because of the problems at Hospira, which led to a nationwide shortage of the drug in nearly every state that carries out lethal injections, except in Texas.

The e-mails show officials complaining about a Texas prison system — described in a local newspaper story as "well stocked" — apparently refusing to loan any sodium thiopental anywhere. Texas has executed 17 inmates this year and plans three more lethal injections by year's end.

"It is unfortunate that Texas would not share some of its 'well stocked' supply to help sister states but down the road they may need help in some other way and this position does not help their image," a Sept. 29 e-mail to Kernan states. "Nevertheless, in the prison business things are always changing and Texas is no exception."

The sender's name was blacked out by prison department lawyers before the e-mail was turned over the ACLU. It ends by saying "Sorry we were not able to help more."

Texas authorities were unavailable because of the late hour the documents were released.

The second AP report, "Calif. scrambled for execution drug," is by Paul Elias.  It's via the Washington Post.

California prison officials went on a frantic two-month search for a lethal drug needed to carry out the state's first execution in five years, which ultimately was called off, documents released late Wednesday showed.

The officials traded lethal injection drugs with their counterparts in Arizona, were snubbed by well-stocked Texas and scoured the globe from Pakistan to London for the drug in short supply.

The intensive search ultimately failed when the planned Sept. 30 execution was canceled in part because of a shortage of sodium thiopental.

The state's only supply of the drug on hand expired on Oct. 1 and resolving legal challenges brought by condemned inmate Albert Greenwood Brown would delay his execution beyond that date, leaving the state Attorney General's office no choice but to halt its attempts to proceed with the execution.

The office said the state won't schedule any more executions until a federal lawsuit claiming the state's lethal injection process is unconstitutional is resolved.

And:

They called nearly 100 hospitals and considered a supplier in Pakistan until acquiring 521 grams of the drug manufactured by Archimedes Pharma of Great Britain. The department still hasn't received the shipment, which is being held on the East Coast awaiting clearance from the Food and Drug Administration, spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

Thornton said Wednesday night that the documents highlight the department's determination to carry out the execution of Brown, who was convicted in Riverside County of raping and killing a high school student and then taunting her mother.

"We have always said we were actively seeking a new supply of sodium thiopental," Thornton said.

The department managed to scrounge eight grams of the drug on Aug. 24 from a supplier not identified in the documents.

"It is enough to do one execution," CDCR Undersecretary Scott Kernan told Department Secretary Matt Cade in an e-mail. "Bad news is drug expires in Oct."

The documents also show the California prison officials receiving 12 grams of the drug from Arizona on Sept. 29, mere hours after the state Attorney General's office notified the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it was quitting its legal fight to execute Brown because of an adverse court ruling connected to the expiration date of the sodium thiopental on hand.

"You guys in AZ are life savers," Kernan e-mailed Charles Flanagan, Arizona Department of Corrections deputy director. "Buy you a beer next time I get that way."

Julie Small reports, "California’s Corrections Department swapped lethal injection drugs with Arizona," for KPCC-FM for| Southern California Public Radio.

“We’ve received a fair bit of the what, we’ve not received nearly enough of the who,” says ACLU attorney Michael Risher.

Risher filed a public records request with Corrections two months ago to find out more about the state’s source of sodium thiopental. He later sued to enforce it. A superior court judge in San Francisco recently ordered CDCR to comply.

Risher says the documents prison officials released reveal the agency conducted a global search for the drugs in places as far away as Pakistan and “refer to a ‘secret mission’ by the government to get the drugs.”

“Many people were involved with the process both inside and outside the Department of Corrections,” Risher said. “We simply don’t know all of that information yet. They’ve redacted the names of the companies they were doing business with. It sounds as if there were some middle men that the CDC contracted with to get these substances from a foreign country into the United States.”

Risher says the documents show that state officials also reached out to nearly a hundred California hospitals and communities but none gave the department the drug.

"Imported death penalty drug to be tested by FDA," is the title of George Miller's post at Fierce Pharma Manufacturing.

The anesthetic sodium thiopental purchased by California prison officials from a U.K. manufacturer will be tested by the FDA prior to use. It was shipped to the U.S. before the U.K. decided last month to constrain export of the drug to prevent its use in executions.

Counting the U.K. shipment, California says it has enough of the drug for 175 executions. More than 700 inmates populate death row in the Golden State.

Officials augmented their $36,000 purchase of 521 grams from Archimedes Pharma with 12 grams provided at no charge by the Arizona penal system.

Sodium thiopental has been in short supply in the U.S. due primarily to manufacturing delays at drugmaker Hospira, following an FDA warning for GMP violations at a North Carolina facility, as reported.

Earlier coverage begins with yesterday's post, "California Officials Release Some Drug Information."

California Officials Release Some Drug Information

Carol Williams posts, "California now has enough drugs to execute 175 death row inmates," at the Los Angeles Times.  A correction revises the estimate in the headline, however.

Corrections officials told a federal judge Tuesday that they have imported enough sodium thiopental from Arizona and Britain to execute 175 death row prisoners.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation last month purchased 521 grams of the drug from Archimedes Pharma for $36,415, said department spokeswoman Terry Thornton.

Prison officials also acquired 12 grams of the drug at no cost from the Arizona Department of Corrections on Sept. 30, Thornton said.

The source of the execution drug was disclosed in a report to U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose after the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California made a public records request and a San Francisco judge gave corrections officials until Tuesday to explain where it got the drug no longer available from the sole U.S. manufacturer.

And:

The sodium thiopental bought from the British manufacturer is currently being stored at an East Coast site pending testing and approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Thornton.

It was shipped ahead of Britain’s decision late last month to bar exports of the drug, which is also used in surgery and to euthanize animals. All European nations have renounced capital punishment, and Britain came under fire for making the drug available to U.S. states for executions.

California has the nation’s largest death row, with 713 condemned prisoners.

Also:

An earlier story about the state’s acquisition of 537 grams of sodium thiopental said that quantity was sufficient to execute 175 condemned prisoners. Newly revised lethal-injection procedures require the state to have a backup supply of each drug loaded and ready for use at each execution, which would expend twice the necessary amount of the drug per execution. The new rules also require that an unspecified quantity be used for training purposes.

"California Prisons release details of lethal injection drug acquisition," is the title of Julie Small's report this morning at KPCC-FM, Southern California Public Radio.

California prison officials have released hundreds of pages of documents on the state’s supply of a lethal injection drug. They sent those documents to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California after a court ordered them to do it.

California uses 6 grams of a barbiturate called sodium thiopental to anesthetize inmates during executions. The drug renders the inmate unconscious before a second drug stops his or her heart.

The state had to cancel an execution this year in part because its supply of sodium thiopental expired and the only domestic manufacturer of the stuff ran out of supplies. Shortly after that, Corrections acquired 12 grams of sodium thiopental, and month later it acquired another 521 grams. But officials wouldn’t say where or how or how much it cost.

"That shipment of the drugs was manufactured by a company, a pharmaceutical company based in England, Archimedes Pharma. They supply the drug to distributors," explains spokeswoman Terry Thornton.

And:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a public records request two months ago to get that information and sued to enforce it.

Death penalty opponents doubt the legality of foreign supplies of sodium thiopental. They say those supplies may be less effective and could subject inmates to excruciating pain during executions.

Corrections’ Terry Thornton says the federal Food and Drug Administration is reviewing California’s English supply of sodium thiopental – as expected.

"We are working with the FDA, we always have been working the FDA," says Thornton. "We have approval from the DEA, we have approval of this shipment from U.S. customs and as soon as the FDA releases it will be shipped to California."

Thornton says the department always intended to comply with the ACLU’s request for information on California’s sodium thiopental supply. But she says the state agency's attorneys had to consider numerous lawsuits, state and federal laws that affect what information it could and could not release. It also took some time to compile and copy the 1,192 pages of information it's released.

Earlier coverage from California begins with this post.

California Lethal Injection Drug From UK

The AP report by Paul Elias, "Calif gets supply of drug used during executions," is via the Silicon Valley Mercury News.

California's prison department said Monday it has turned to an overseas manufacturer to replenish its supplies of sodium thiopental, a drug necessary to carry out executions in the state.

The state paid $36,415 to acquire 521 grams of the drug manufactured by Archimedes Pharma of Great Britain, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

The order was placed overseas after the department's domestic supplier Hospira Inc.—the nation's only sodium thiopental maker—said production problems had hindered its ability to deliver fresh supplies.

Sodium thiopental has historically been used as a general anesthetic but is also the first of three drugs given during the lethal injection process for death row prisoners.

The U.S. has a shortage of sodium thiopental, and multiple states have halted or slowed the pace of lethal injections while searching for alternative sources of the drug.

The shortage of usable sodium thiopental contributed to the Sept. 29 cancellation of the scheduled execution of Albert Greenwood Brown in California. The prison department received a shipment of 12 grams from Arizona's prison department the next day.

Both new supplies expire in 2014. The disclosure of the sources and cost came after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit seeking that information.

"Execution drug came from UK, California officials say," is the Sacramento Bee report by Sam Stanton.

California corrections officials said Monday that they ordered a large dose of a scarce drug used in lethal injection executions from Britain, a revelation likely to spur legal challenges to death penalty cases.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is under court order to provide details to the American Civil Liberties Union by today explaining how it got the drug sodium thiopental.

Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton told The Bee on Monday that officials obtained two different doses of the drug for possible use in executions.

The first batch of 12 grams came from Arizona on Sept. 30, said Thornton, noting California was not charged for it.

The second batch of 521 grams was manufactured by Archimedes Pharma, a British company, and corrections officials paid $36,415 to obtain it, she said.

The shipment was approved by U.S. Customs and the Drug Enforcement Administration, Thornton said. It is on the East Coast awaiting release by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"We have followed all the proper procedures," Thornton said.

The origin of the drugs is the subject of a lawsuit by the ACLU's Northern California branch, which contends that it is illegal for corrections to use a foreign-produced drug in executions without FDA approval.

Natasha Minsker, the ACLU's death penalty project director in San Francisco, said corrections officials were violating the law by releasing the information Monday to reporters but not to the ACLU.

"Until we see the records, we don't know (if the drugs can legally be used in executions)," Minsker said. "We're still left with the same questions: Where are the records? How did they get these drugs? What are they hiding?"

FDA officials could not be reached late Monday, but the matter has delayed executions nationwide and become an international controversy.

Rina Palta posts, "Where California got its execution drugs," at KALW-FM's Informant.

The ACLU of Northern California had won a case in San Francisco’s Superior Court last week that gave the CDCR until tomorrow to reveal their source of sodium thiopental. Natasha Minsker, death penalty policy adviser for the ACLU of NorCal, says that the organization is not satisfied with these disclosures. She says the court ordered the CDCR to share documents regarding the drugs as soon as possible. “It’s not up to the state to selectively release information to who they want, when they want,” she says. The public records case is scheduled for a hearing December 14.

States’ source of sodium thiopental has been a nationwide controversy since it emerged that the drug is scarce, as Hospira, the sole US manufacturer of the drug (and only one certified by the FDA), lacks raw materials necessary to produce it. The controversy escalated when Arizona used sodium thiopental purchased from Great Britain to execute Jeffrey Landrigan in October.

Last week, the UK passed new regulations that ban the export of sodium thiopental if it’s for the purpose of carrying out the death penalty.

Earlier coverage from California begins with this post; more on the UK export restrictions, at the link

Texas Lethal Injection Drugs

"Release suppliers of lethal drugs," is the title of an editorial in the Austin American-Statesman.  It appeared in the Saturday edition.

Earlier this month, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials tried unsuccessfully to thwart disclosure of information about drugs used to execute condemned inmates by arguing that release of the information would somehow lead to violence.

Fortunately, lawyers in Attorney General Greg Abbott's office saw through that smokescreen and ordered the prison system to release the information requested by the American-Statesman, among others. The newspaper wanted to know about the quantities of the drugs on hand, expiration dates, the last dates of purchase and the names of the suppliers of the drugs. Public funds pay for the drugs, and the public is entitled to know what it is buying, how much of it and who supplies it.

The request for the information was spurred by reports that Hospira, an Illinois company that is the sole U.S. supplier of sodium thiopental — one of the ingredients in the lethal cocktail administered to condemned inmates — has stopped manufacturing the drug because of a lack of ingredients. Since that news surfaced, at least two states have delayed or halted executions because they are out of sodium thiopental or because their supply has expired and cannot be used.

And:

There is no ambiguity in the phrase "may not withhold," but the prison system has not given up its love of secrets — and has not revealed the names of the suppliers of the drugs.

Melinda Bozarth, the prison system's general counsel, said a 2008 ruling by Abbott's office permits supplier names to be withheld. "We're going to hang our hat on that," she said.

That hat is on backward. The prison system should disclose the information as the latest ruling orders.

Furthermore, instead of wasting public time and money defending the indefensible, the prison system should be answering questions about how it intends to carry out executions if a key ingredient in the lethal cocktail is unavailable.

Both death penalty proponents and opponents are entitled to an answer to that question.

Monday's USA Today will report, "States ask Texas to supply ingredient for executions."  It's written by Kevin Johnson.

Some states that have the death penalty have asked Texas for doses of sodium thiopental, the so-called knockout drug, used as part of the three-drug cocktail in executions by lethal injection, accordingto Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She would not identify the states that requested assistance.

The state has declined to make its supply available even though all of its 39 available doses are set to expire in March and there are only three executions scheduled in the state before then, Lyons said.

States — including Arizona, Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky — have scrambled to acquire the drug.

Sodium thiopental renders the condemned inmate unconscious, so the prisoner does not feel pain. Hospira, the lone federally approved producer of the drug, has said new batches of the substance would not be available until next year.

Lyons said that despite the looming expiration of Texas' extra inventory, "we do not have plans to distribute the drug to other states."

"We have a responsibility to ensure we have an adequate supply of the drug on hand to carry out any executions scheduled in the state of Texas," Lyons said.

Earlier coverage of the Texas Open Records Decision begins with the post, "More Lethal Injection Information From Texas."  Related posts are in the lethal injection index.

California Official Vows to Release Execution Drug Source

Southern Californai Public Radio reports,"Corrections chief promises to divulge how California secured lethal injection drug."  It's by Julie Small of KPCC-FM.

California’s top prison official said Friday he’ll soon release information on the state’s supply of a lethal injection drug. The only US manufacturer of sodium thiopental ran out of the barbiturate. But California recently purchased a supply and refused to say where it came from.

Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate told KPCC reporter Julie Small that his department is still figuring out what information it can release and when.

"We understand that by being circumspect with information we’ve kind of hightened the scrutiny on the issue" Cate said, "when really I think it’s not going to end up being a state secret. We’ll describe how we got it and why we went that route and all those kinds of things. It’s a matter of timing."

Earlier coverage from California begins with, "New California Litigation Over Lethal Injection Drug Source."

More Lethal Injection Information From Texas

The Texas Attorney General's Open Records Letter Decision, OR2010-17507, is in Adobe .pdf format.

"Texas has lethal drugs on hand to execute 39 condemned criminals," is the title of Mike Ward's report in the Saturday edition of the Austin American-Statesman.

Texas has enough lethal drugs on hand to execute 39 condemned criminals, but all doses of one key drug in its inventory expire in March, a situation that could delay executions unless additional supplies are found, state officials revealed Friday.

Melinda Bozarth, general counsel for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said she was not aware of whether Texas has a supplier that can provide additional doses of sodium thiopental — one of three drugs used in executions that is in short supply across the country. "I don't know for sure, but I thought we didn't have a current supplier for the first drug (sodium thiopental) and do for the other two," she said.

Officials on Friday also revealed that Texas spent $1,220.34 on the three lethal injection drugs between September 2009 and August 2010, when 24 convicts were executed. All three drugs are used for each execution.

Attorney General Greg Abbott ordered prison officials to make public some information about the lethal injection drugs after the Austin American-Statesman and two groups requested records about the inventories and suppliers of lethal injection drugs. The Statesman requested documents under the Texas Public Information Act after the reports of a national shortage.

And:

One item that was not made public on Friday: names of the suppliers of the drugs.

An Illinois-based company, Hospira , said earlier this year it was the sole U.S. supplier of sodium thiopental and had stopped manufacturing the drug because of a lack of ingredients. At least two states have since delayed or halted executions because they are out of sodium thiopental or because their supply has expired and cannot be used.

Abbott's ruling indicated that information about the supplier should be public.

But Bozarth said a 2008 ruling by Abbott's office allowed the supplier names to be kept secret. "We're going to hang our hat on that," she said when asked why the names were not disclosed.

According to the new information, Texas has 118 vials of sodium thiopental on hand, all of which will expire in March. By law, it cannot be used once it has expired. Texas now has only one execution scheduled after March. It has one execution each scheduled in January, February and July.

Brian Stull, senior staff attorney for the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project, said one implication of having 118 grams of sodium thiopental that expires in March "is that much of it will be wasted when it could be used for the medical purpose for which it was designed, and which Hospira has asked it be reserved for."

The new information shows the prison system "has 100 grams it will let expire while hospitals that need it for surgeries go without it amidst a nationwide shortage," Stull said.

In his five-page ruling, Abbott dismissed arguments made by the corrections agency that the quantities, expiration dates and purchase information should be kept secret because it could disrupt the execution process, possibly trigger violent protests outside the execution chamber in Huntsville or even embolden death penalty opponents, if they knew the state was about to run short of the drugs.

Earlier coverage begins with the post, "Texas Attorney General Rules on Open Records Request."